---
title: "Aon → Willis Towers Watson"
url: "https://mahouse.world/ma-deals/aon-buy-willis-towers-watson-2020"
type: "M&A deal"
year: "2020"
---

# Aon → Willis Towers Watson

Aon's $30bn all-share combination with Willis Towers Watson would have created the world's largest insurance broker by revenue; Europe cleared it with divestitures, but it was abandoned in July 2021 after the US Department of Justice sued to block a merger of two of the industry's "Big Three".

Abandoned in July 2021 after the Department of Justice sued, with Aon paying a $1bn termination fee.

- **Acquirer:** Aon (Ireland)
- **Target:** Willis Towers Watson (Ireland)
- **Value:** $30B
- **Announced:** March 2020
- **Outcome:** Terminated
- **Sector:** Insurance
- **Deal type:** merger

## Why it mattered

Both companies were headquartered in London; in 2020 Aon reported more than $11bn of revenue and Willis Towers Watson more than $9bn. Under the terms announced on 9 March 2020, each Willis Towers Watson share would become 1.08 new Aon shares, a 16.2% premium, leaving Aon's shareholders with about 63% of a company with a combined equity value of about $80bn. The group would keep the Aon name, be run by Aon's chief executive Greg Case with Willis Towers Watson's John Haley as executive chairman, and save $800m a year by the third year.

The reviews took more than a year. The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation in December 2020 and on 9 July 2021 approved the deal on condition that substantial Willis Towers Watson reinsurance and commercial risk broking businesses were sold; Arthur J. Gallagher had agreed in May to buy them. The US Department of Justice took a different view. Its lawsuit of 16 June 2021 alleged harm in five markets, from reinsurance broking to health-benefits broking and pension administration for large employers, and said the divestitures offered abroad were inadequate for American customers. Case said the companies had reached "an impasse" with the department, and on 26 July 2021 they called the deal off.

## What it left behind

Willis Towers Watson kept the $1bn fee and, in the end, made one of the divestitures anyway: Gallagher's agreement lapsed with the merger, but it bought the treaty reinsurance business, completing on 1 December 2021 for an initial $3.25bn plus an earn-out. The company rebranded as WTW in January 2022 under a new chief executive, Carl Hess, and in January 2026 completed its purchase of Newfront, a San Francisco broker, for up to $1.3bn. Aon later turned to the middle market: it completed its purchase of NFP in April 2024 at an enterprise value of $13bn, partly paid in Aon shares. The two remain separate companies. A remedy package that satisfies one competition authority does not bind another; when a deal removes one of three global players, the strictest regulator sets the price of approval.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Towers_Watson