Dive Brief:

• Insurance broker and risk management advisory firm Willis Group Holdings has agreed to an all-share merger with the professional services firm Towers Watson, creating a company - Willis Towers Watson - with an $18 billion market value, according to a joint announcement.
• If approved, the deal would create a professional services, risk management and insurance brokerage firm with more than $8 billion in annual revenue and about 39,000 employees in more than 120 countries.
• After the deal closes, James McCann will become chairman, John Haley will be CEO and Dominic Casserley will be president and deputy CEO, while Casserley and Gene Wickes from Towers Watson will oversee the integration team.

Dive Insight:

According to the annnouncement, the combination of Willis and Towers Watson brings together two highly complementary businesses to create an integrated global advisory, broking and solutions provider to serve a broad range of clients in existing and new business lines.

Towers Watson, based in Arlington, Va., was formed in 2010 by the merger of Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, two of the largest HR management consulting firms at the time. The company currently provides a variety of professional services, including HR management, risk consulting and compensation advisory services.

Towers Watson’s One Exchange Platform allows employers to give employees a regional choice of health plans, and is touted by the company as able to save companies an average of $1,400 per employee, according to the Wall Street Journal. Executives of the companies told the Journal that Willis had already been buying the system to sell to its own customers, a relationship that eventually spawned merger talks.