Hewitt acquisition drives Aon revenue surge

It's a winter holiday in the boardroom today as Aon Corporation unveiled their fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2010 results, showing major improvements across the financial spectrum. While the news will have Aon execs scrambling to take credit, it's the folks who envisioned and enacted a merger between Aon Consulting and the consulting unit at Hewitt Associates that really deserves it; that unification saw the firm's consulting revenues skyrocket and proved to be the driving force behind Aon's financial success.

In this morning's press release that disclosed the results, the phrase "primarily Hewitt" was used to describe the reasons behind much of the company's improvement and growth. Firm-wide, fourth quarter revenue increased 40 percent to $2.9 billion, a considerable percentage in its own right; compare that to the 229 percent increase the HR Solutions (formerly known as Consulting) division reported last quarter (at $1.2 billion from last year's $350 million), and you get an idea of the resurgent effect Hewitt's arrival had upon both the division and the whole company. That effect also extended to Aon's full year results, with the firm reporting 12 percent revenue growth—an $8.5 billion revenue haul—in 2010.

Aon Corporation bought Hewitt's consulting division in October 2010 for $4.9 billion, a significant investment to say the least. The company has embarked on an ambitious path to become larger, more profitable, and more visible since it inked a shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United last year. The blockbuster addition of the Hewitt unit, a longtime player in the consulting industry, continues to play a major part in that initiative. It seems to be working.

For more information:
Aon Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Results
Reuters: Aon's Q4 profit tops Wall Street estimates