Towers Watson

Towers Watson & Co.

Traded as	NYSE: TW
Industry	Professional services
Predecessor	Towers Perrin Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Founded	2010;15 years ago (2010)
Fate	Merged with Willis Group
Successor	Willis Towers Watson
Headquarters	Arlington, Virginia , United States
Area served	Global
Key people	John J. Haley (chairman, president, and CEO)
Services	Employee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management
Revenue	US$3.644 billion (2015)
Net income	US$384 million (2015)
Total assets	US$5.394 billion (2015)
Total equity	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

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" (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. "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.