AIG To Invest In Investigations Firm
April 17, 2015 by MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
In 1993, the Kroll family, one of the most prominent practitioners of corporate intelligence, reached out to the American International Group, the insurance giant, about investing in its firm.
Nearly a quarter-century later, the Krolls and A.I.G. are doing it again.
A.I.G. plans to announce on Thursday that it has made an investment in K2 Intelligence, the investigations firm that Jules B. Kroll and his son Jeremy founded about five years ago, renewing what both sides say is a relationship that has stayed strong for decades.
While terms of the investment were not disclosed, A.I.G. will gain ties to a provider of investigations and analytics that can benefit its clients, a relationship similar to the one forged decades ago. But this time around, the ties between the two are underpinned by a threat that hovers over the modern world: cybercrime.
While in the past corporate investigators had worried about problems like performing simple due diligence or finding and preventing espionage, both firms think that a huge concern now is computer and data security.
“One of the biggest shifts that has taken place is from a world where guns, guards and dogs surrounded the perimeter,” Jeremy Kroll said in an interview. “Today, these walls are permeable. Companies are working in a borderless world.”
Though many companies have arisen after security breaches and billions of dollars of theft and damage to offer protection services, K2 is seeking to provide more than a technological solution for its clients, Mr. Kroll said. Just as important as preventing such attacks is determining who was behind the hacking and why, he said.
“The first order for me as an executive always was, ‘Who’s trying to penetrate our company, why are they trying to penetrate us, and is there anything I can do if I got early warning?’” said Tom Glocer, the former Thomson Reuters chief executive who serves on K2’s board and is chairman of its cybersecurity practice.
The Krolls’ new company, formed after the family sold its firm to Marsh & McLennan for $1.9 billion in 2004, has grown to include 300 employees in offices from New York to London to Tel Aviv. Beyond cyberdefense, it has built practices on traditional investigations, regulatory compliance and data analytics.
But that growth, Mr. Kroll said, would be aided immeasurably by additional capital. So around October, the Krolls called A.I.G.’s chief executive, Peter Hancock, and its head of commercial insurance, John Doyle, for advice.
“It wasn’t like a blind date,” Mr. Kroll said. “It was more like families reconnecting.”
As the four sat in A.I.G.’s offices in Lower Manhattan, sipping coffee and looking out over South Street Seaport, the two discussed the directions that each of their firms were headed. A common theme emerged as Mr. Hancock and Mr. Doyle discussed how their business was placing more emphasis on data analytics and cyberinsurance.
For A.I.G., Mr. Doyle said, cyberinsurance has become an increasingly important offering. The business has expanded beyond simply assuming the risks of a cyberattack for clients to include helping customers build better defenses and helping them after a breach.
“The cyberinsurance market is very undeveloped, and some of our customers have struggled to get significant capacity,” Mr. Doyle said in an interview. “This will help them manage those risks in a better way.”
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Copyright 2015 The New York Times Company