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Towers Watson

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Towers Watson & Co.
NYSE: TW
IndustryProfessional services
PredecessorTowers Perrin
Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Founded2010; 14 years ago (2010)
FateMerged with Willis Group
SuccessorWillis Towers Watson
Headquarters
Arlington, Virginia
,
United States
Area served
Global
Key people
John J. Haley (chairman, president, and CEO)
ServicesEmployee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management
RevenueIncrease US$3.644 billion (2015)
Increase US$384 million (2015)
Total assetsDecrease US$5.394 billion (2015)
Total equityDecrease US$2.932 billion (2015)
Number of employees
16,300 (June 30, 2015)
Footnotes / references
[1]

Towers Watson & Co. was a global professional services firm that provided risk management services, human resource consulting, actuarial services, and investment management. The company operated in 37 countries. Customers included 92% of Fortune Global 500 companies and 84% of Fortune 1000 companies.[1]

In 2016, the company was acquired by Willis Group in a merger of equals to form Willis Towers Watson.

History

[edit]

Towers Watson was formed on January 4, 2010, by the $4 billion merger of equals of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt Worldwide. The merger created the largest employee-benefits consulting firm by revenue worldwide.[2][3][4][5]

Watson Wyatt Worldwide was formed by the 1995 alliance and 2005 merger between R. Watson & Sons (founded in 1878 by Reuben Watson) and The Wyatt Company (founded in 1946 by Birchard E. Wyatt).[6][7][8][9] Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby was established in the U.S. in 1934: in 1987, the company shortened its name to Towers Perrin.[6]

In February 2011, Towers Watson acquired EMB Consultancy. EMB specialized in property & casualty consulting. EMB also had software dealing with pricing, reserving, spatial smoothing analysis, capital and risk modelling.[10][11]

In May 2012, the company acquired Extend Health, a provider of health-care insurance services and the operator of the largest private Medicare health insurance marketplace, for $435 million.[12][13] In September 2013, IBM signed a contract to use the Extend Health platform for insurance services for it U.S retirees.[14]

In November 2013, the company sold its reinsurance brokerage business to Jardine Lloyd Thompson for $250 million.[15][16] That month, it also acquired Liazon, operator of the Bright Choices private health insurance marketplace, for $215 million.[17]

In May 2015, the company acquired Acclaris, a provider of software and services for consumer-driven health care and reimbursement accounts such as health savings accounts, for $140 million.[18][19]

In July 2015, the company sold its human resources service delivery practice to KPMG.[20]

In September 2015, the company acquired Brovada Technologies for $15 million.[21][22]

In 2016, the company was acquired by Willis Group in a merger of equals to form Willis Towers Watson.[6][23][24]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Towers Watson & Co 2015 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  2. ^ "Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt Complete Merger to Form Towers Watson" (Press release). PR Newswire. 3 January 2010.
  3. ^ Wahba, Phil (3 January 2010). "Watson Wyatt completes $4 bln merger with Towers". Reuters.
  4. ^ "Management Consultants to Merge in All-Stock Deal". The New York Times. 29 June 2009.
  5. ^ "Watson Wyatt Sews Up $4 Billion Merger With Towers". The New York Times. 4 January 2010.
  6. ^ a b c "Our History". Willis Towers Watson.
  7. ^ Chernoff, Joel (3 April 1995). "WYATT, WATSON JOIN FORCESALLIANCE SEES PROSPECTS FROM MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES". Pensions & Investments. Crain Communications.
  8. ^ "Watson Wyatt Agrees To Acquire Sister". ThinkAdvisor. 19 January 2005.
  9. ^ Stapleton, Jonathan (12 January 2022). "Willis, Towers and Watson names lost in WTW rebrand". Professional Pensions.
  10. ^ "Towers Watson Acquires EMB". Institutional Investor. 2 February 2011.
  11. ^ "Towers Watson completes acquisition of EMB" (Press release). Business Wire. 1 February 2011.
  12. ^ "Towers Watson To Buy Extend Health In $435M Deal". The Wall Street Journal. 15 May 2012.
  13. ^ Vellacott, Greg (13 May 2012). "Towers Watson & Co to buy largest private Medicare exchange". Reuters.
  14. ^ Dey, Esha; Raghavan, Mridhula (9 September 2013). "CORRECTED-Towers Watson shares jump on IBM contract win". Reuters.
  15. ^ "Towers Watson sells reinsurance business for $250M". Yahoo!. Associated Press. 6 November 2013.
  16. ^ Vellacott, Chris; Zahid, Tasim (20 September 2013). "Jardine Lloyd Thompson to buy Towers Watson reinsurance unit". Reuters.
  17. ^ Drury, Tracey (22 November 2013). "Liazon sold in $215M deal". American City Business Journals.
  18. ^ "Towers Watson Acquires Acclaris to Expand Benefits Administration to Consumer-Driven Account-Based Benefits" (Press release). Business Wire. 11 May 2015.
  19. ^ Manning, Margie (11 May 2015). "Homegrown Tampa tech firm Acclaris sells for $140M to Towers Watson". American City Business Journals.
  20. ^ Rapoport, Michael (9 July 2015). "KPMG to Acquire Towers Watson's Human Resources Delivery Practice". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. ^ "Towers Watson in its acquisition of the assets of Brovada Technologies Inc. for US$15 million". Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt.
  22. ^ "Towers Watson Completes Acquisition of Brovada" (Press release). 1 October 2015.
  23. ^ Comtois, James (13 July 2015). "Towers Watson, Willis merger to combine strengths". Pensions & Investments. Crain Communications.
  24. ^ "Willis and Towers Watson to merge in $18B deal". CNBC. Reuters. 30 June 2015.
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