www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal 47
25 YEARS: MORPHERS & MERGERS
&
Morphers
Mergers
Companies buy up other companies;
that happens every day in business.
Here are five notable marriages that
took place over the last quarter-century.
BY STEVEN JONES D'AGOSTINO
Special to the Worcester Business Journal
T
he Hanover Insurance Group complex
along Worcester's Lincoln Street has
kept sign-makers busy the last two
decades. Hanover, the original name of a
property-liability insurance firm founded
in 1852, remained a publicly traded com-
pany under that name until the early
1990s, when it changed to Allmerica
Property & Casualty Cos.
In 1996, Allmerica spun off Allmerica
Financial Corp. as a property-and-casualty
insurance and financial services holding
company. Allmerica Financial then bought
the original firm and eventually became
one of the 500 largest, publicly traded com-
panies in the United States. In 2005,
Allmerica Financial reverted its name back
to The Hanover.
Got all that?
Good, there's more. Three years later,
The Hanover acquired AIX Group and, in
2011, London-based Chaucer Holdings. In
2009, CommonWealth acquired First
Allmerica Life Insurance from Hanover.
Today, the consistently profitable
Hanover, the largest public company based
in Worcester, has annual revenue of almost
$5 billion, nearly double that of 2009. The
company employs 5,000 globally, with
4,200 in 30 U.S. locations.
ALLMERICA & HANOVER
>> Continued on Page 48
