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]

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]

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]