Insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Ltd. reportedly wants to talk to Marsh & McLennan about acquiring its larger competitor, according to a CNBC report citing unnamed sources.
While rumors that Marsh & McLennan is on the auction block have circulated on Wall Street for years, the Willis rumor seems a bit of a stretch. After all, Willis, with a market capitalization of $5.3 billion, is less than half the size of Marsh, which is valued at more than $13 billion. This detail even led CNBC to treat the news with some skepticism.
The rumors about Marsh & McLennan resurfaced again earlier in the month when activist investor Nelson Peltz invested in the firm. - Matthew Wurtzel
