Aon plc plans to snatch up a global cyber risk management advisory firm, a move that will allow the broker to beef up its services in a fast-growing sector of the business.

An Aon subsidiary is leading the acquisition. Aon Risk Solutions (Aon plc’s global risk management business) will acquire Stroz Friedberg, a competitor based in New York City, with offices across the U.S. and in London, Zurich, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Neither party disclosed financial terms of the deal, which is pending the usual closing conditions. Aon bills the acquisition, however, as a way of giving clients wide-ranging cyber services and boosting its market position in terms of cyber risk brokerage. Aon, in acquiring Stroz Friedberg, gains its cyber security governance and advisory services such as its penetration testing, incident response, digital forensics, eDiscovery and due diligence capabilities.

Also coming to Aon as part of the deal: more than 550 Stroz Friedberg employees, who will join the new AonCyber Solutions Group. The deal also incorporates Stroz Friedberg CEO Michael Patsalos-Fox into the Aon fold; he’ll become CEO and co-chair of Aon’s Cyber Solutions Group. John Bruno, Aon’s executive vice president of enterprise innovation and chief innovation offer, will be the other co-chair.

Bruno said that Aon and Stroz Friedberg bring complementary cyber services to the table, and that the combination will give Aon clients access “to the most advanced thinking and solutions in the industry.”

“Aon and Stroz Friedberg have highly complementary end-to-end cyber risk management [products] and services,” Bruno said in prepared remarks. He added that Aon’s acquisition will significantly expand its cyber products, and that it “differentiates us from our competition while accelerating innovation on behalf of our clients.”

Patsalos-Fox added, also in prepared remarks, that he expects that combining with Aon will create “the scale and platform to satisfy the growing market need” for wide-ranging coverage and risk reduction services that address cyber threats and how to counter them.

Source: Aon plc