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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,
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.