BrandWikiReturn

Towers Watson

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

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

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