The Alabama company will enter Sarasota, Fla., after buying Premier for $52 million.
Ancora Advisors will place a representative on MutualFirst's board in exchange for supporting the company's director nominees and other policies.
The $6 million acquisition will add four businesses with a total of $700 million in assets under management.
More buyers, spurred by increased lending and an improved economy, are pursuing deals for banks with an abundance of cheap deposits.
In an update on the Deposit Insurance Fund, FDIC staff said the fund's ratio of reserves to estimated deposits will likely reach the required 1.35% level by the second half of 2018.
The San Juan company disclosed an error in the way it calculated the provision for losses in its commercial loan book.
Gulfside Bank, which would be based in Sarasota, is angling to become southwest Florida's first new bank in a decade.
Organizers want to open the first new bank in Michigan since 2009, while a third group in Florida has filed a de novo application.
On Dec. 31, 2017. Dollars in thousands.
