Hewitt Associates - 2000 Onward

2000 Onward

By early 2000 Hewitt's expansion moved forward with new offices near Houston, Texas, and an increased presence in Asia with a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The company also announced the merger of its British and Irish operations with the United Kingdom's Bacon & Woodrow, a leading retirement and HR management consulting firm. Hewitt also unveiled plans for Sageo, a comprehensive online service where participants could compare, choose, and enroll in benefit programs. Sageo was designed for retirees and companies with numerous older employees, to offer this growing population the same benefits provided to Hewitt's 150 corporate clients and their 15 million worldwide employees. Hewitt hoped that Sageo's online format would not only simplify the benefits process but lower employer costs as well. Within a few months of its debut, Sageo had enrolled nearly a dozen companies representing 500,000 individuals. However, Sageo never made money and was dismantled shortly thereafter.

In 2001 Hewitt formally announced its intention to become a publicly traded company after nearly six decades as a private firm. Under the ticker symbol HEW on the New York Stock Exchange, Hewitt went public on June 27, 2002, with an initial offering of 11 million shares (at $19 per share). Share prices rose as high as $23 the following day. Hewitt wasted little time in putting its new funds to work, paying off debt, purchasing France's Finance Arbitage, an investment consultancy firm, and spearheading expansion plans for the United Kingdom and China.

In 2003 Hewitt took over the Cork, Ireland-based Becketts, a benefits consultancy, and bought the software programs and payroll services of Cyborg Worldwide Inc. These moves, along with several others, prompted the Chicago-based Crain's Chicago Business to name Hewitt one of the area's fastest growing public firms, with fiscal revenues topping $1.9 billion for the year. In 2004 Hewitt announced the purchase/merger of Irvine, California's Exult Inc., another HR and consulting firm. The deal was valued at close to $700 million and was expected to bring in combined revenues of more than $3 billion by the following fiscal year.

For 2004 Hewitt reached revenues of $2.2 billion and the firm sustained its 43rd consecutive year of growth. Employees numbered more than 22,000 in nearly three dozen countries (including Brazil, China, France, India, Ireland, The Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and Switzerland) serving more than 18 million employees for its corporate clients. In addition, the company was named one of America's Most Admired Companies in 2004 by Fortune magazine, ranked as one of the 100 Best Places to Work for the fourth consecutive year by Computer World, and had become the United States' largest and the world's second largest benefits outsourcing company, according to Business Insurance magazine.

By early 2005 Hewitt clinched several significant business processing outsourcing (BPO) contracts, signing publisher Thomson Corporation, Sun Microsystems, hospitality leader Marriott International, beverage giant PepsiCo Inc., Wachovia Corporation, and others to a roster of more than 2,500 international clients. As the year came to a close, Hewitt had fallen a bit short of its $3 billion goal, bringing in revenues of $2.8 billion. With analysts believing the business outsourcing market would top $33 billion or more in 2006, Hewitt continued to dominate the U.S. benefits industry and aimed to be the world's top provider of outsourced business processing.

On July 12, 2010, Chicago-based insurance broker, Aon Corp., announced that it had agreed to buy Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion in cash and stock. The purchase was complete as of October 1, 2010 and Hewitt's stock ticker (HEW) was removed from the NYSE.

On October 14, Aon said 1500 to 1800 jobs would be cut.