Oliver Wyman acquires CR3

I like it from the perspective of OW.  Deal thesis lies in AI takeover of many strategy engagements, while operational/RX engagements have far greater demand inelasticity, and operational expertise is exactly what these strategy firms need to pair their current talent with.  IMO, MBB + rest of T2s should all be looking at similar roll-ups, weather through M&A or internal build out.  Defensive, winning play IMO.  Personally believe LEK, BCG, and Bain will be next to follow this play.  

Remains to be seen how this turns out. If OW tries to impose their signature mgmt consulting bs culture on the CR3 guys it's gonna be hard. Also not sure how this'll affect competitiveness; RX consulting firms are hired for autonomy, honesty and senior attention; OW has 95k ppl and this could dilute that quite a bit. 

On top of that RX more than any industry sees a lot of professionals leave after a deal like this. Damn transfer portal out there. If the key rainmakers leave it's a worthless transaction

This post will echo some of the previous responses, but I think it will be very interesting to see how this plays out for OW. From what I understand, CR3 partners have been discretely shopping the company for a while now. There are exceptions, but generally when a smaller Rx firm get acquired by a larger competitor or a larger financial services company, there is a significant amount of attrition. Other posters have mentioned it but OW is massive, and has established norms that probably wont line up well with what people are used to at CR3. For one, the management consulting comp structure there would have to change for the Rx team, no one is going to stick around for a slightly higher base but ~15% bonus cap at the junior to mid levels (I may be a little off on those numbers but I think I am in the ballpark).

However, this is the first example I know of where a large, quality management consulting firm has bought a sizable RxCo firm, so who knows maybe they will make it work. 

If they can integrate CR3 well, I think this makes a lot of sense for OW. In my opinion, Management Consulting/General Strategy consulting is more vulnerable in the near term to AI disruption than RxCo, so this could be a good diversification/defensive move. 

If this ends up anything like the Big 4's RX practices, I feel like it'll be a disaster for the people in RX that don't have equity in this deal. Everyone in Restructuring knows that A&M is the gold standard for pay and that you get rewarded greatly for the hours/effort you put in. I know quite a few people at the Big 4 who are disgruntled with their restructuring teams because they are stuck under Big4's political BS where the firm as a whole's performance determines the bonus pool writ-large, with bigger allocations to better performing groups. The past few years where RX was doing great but the Big 4 struggled, their bonus was mediocre, which led to a lot of them leaving. You have to work pretty brutal hours for large periods of time in RX and there's no way people will do that for a 20% bonus when A&M and boutiques are paying 50%+. 

Similarly, it's not like OW/Big 4 can pay the RX team exclusively huge bonuses or massive salaries because then people from other teams will be disgruntled, particularly when they cross-pollinate on projects. 

OW pays 110k for entry level and 190k for associate level. Typically expect 15%-40% bonus depending on your rating at these two levels - with associate avg bonus numbers closer to 40% and vice versa.

Firm is quite incumbered by MMC, and has got its head in the sand w.r.t to A.I.

I think the firm has hit saturation in winning FS work and needs to further diversify.

I recently left the company.

All good takes, but the following could also happen, as per Georgia Bankruptcy Blog: Top Bankruptcy Firms Clash Over Fraud and RICO Allegations