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Towers Watson & Co. was a global
professional services Professional services are occupations in the service sector requiring special training in liberal arts and pure sciences education or professional development education. Some professional services, such as architects, accountants, engineers, d ...
firm that provided
risk management Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks, followed by the minimization, monitoring, and control of the impact or probability of those risks occurring. Risks can come from various sources (i.e, Threat (sec ...
services, human resource consulting, actuarial services, and
investment management Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...
. The company operated in 37 countries. Customers included 92% of Fortune Global 500 companies and 84% of Fortune 1000 companies. 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. 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). Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby was established in the U.S. in 1934: in 1987, the company shortened its name to Towers Perrin. 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. 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. In September 2013, IBM signed a contract to use the Extend Health platform for insurance services for it U.S retirees. In November 2013, the company sold its reinsurance brokerage business to Jardine Lloyd Thompson for $250 million. That month, it also acquired Liazon, operator of the Bright Choices private health insurance marketplace, for $215 million. 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. In July 2015, the company sold its human resources service delivery practice to KPMG. In September 2015, the company acquired Brovada Technologies for $15 million. In 2016, the company was acquired by Willis Group in a merger of equals to form Willis Towers Watson.


References

{{Authority control 2010 establishments in Virginia 2016 disestablishments in Virginia Actuarial firms Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Consulting firms disestablished in 2016 Consulting firms established in 2010 Human resource management consulting firms International management consulting firms Management consulting firms of the United States