Watson Wyatt Worldwide

History

Reuben Watson formed the UK actuarial firm R. Watson & Sons in 1878. In 1943, Birchard Wyatt established The Wyatt Company as an actuarial consulting firm.

In 1995, the two firms formed a global alliance under the brand Watson Wyatt Worldwide. The U.S.-based arm of the alliance was renamed Watson Wyatt & Company and the UK firm was called Watson Wyatt LLP. In 2000, Watson Wyatt & Company completed a successful initial public offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In August 2005, the two firms formally merged and the new company was named Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

2007 transactions

During 2007, Watson Wyatt acquired three companies in Europe. It acquired its Netherlands-based alliance partner, Watson Wyatt Brans & Co. in February. In July, Watson Wyatt bought a German human resources consulting firm, Heissmann GmbH. It purchased Oakbridge Consulting Group in Sweden in October.

Also during 2007, Watson Wyatt acquired the talent management technology and consulting firm WisdomNet.

Also during 2007, Watson Wyatt announced that it would spin off its multiemployer retirement practices in the United States and Canada. (A multiemployer retirement plan is set up under the terms of collective bargaining agreements involving more than one unrelated employer, generally in the same industry.) Under the plan, Watson Wyatt would not own any portion of the new companies — Horizon Actuarial Services in the U.S. and PBI Actuarial Consultants in Canada — but it would receive a portion of the new firms' revenue for the next five years.

On June 28, 2009, it was announced that Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt had agreed to merge into a new publicly traded company to be called Towers Watson; the merger was completed in January 2010.

2007 Iron Workers pension fund settlement

On March 23, 2007, Watson Wyatt settled a lawsuit by the pension fund trustees of the Iron Workers, Local No. 25, of Michigan. The lawsuit alleged that the pension plan was underfunded as a result of the company's actuarial work. Under the settlement, Watson Wyatt paid $110 million but did not admit any wrongdoing.