NU Online News Service, Dec. 21, 3:51 p.m. EDT

Chicago-based insurance broker Aon Corp. said it has acquiredIreland-based online personal insurance broker Insure.ie.

Financial terms of the transaction were not released.

Aon said in a statement that Insure.ie is a well-developed webbusiness with an associated call center in Dublin and more than100,000 customers in Ireland across motor, home, travel and healthinsurance.

Aon said the firm is a subsidiary of Mike Murphy InsuranceBrokers, founded by Mike Murphy.

Mr. Murphy, the former chief executive officer of Mike MurphyInsurance and Insure.ie, and his team will join Aon as part of thenew management structure and will continue to work with theircustomers under the Aon umbrella, the broker said.

Mike Murphy Insurance and Insure.ie have 80 employees, of which50 work for Insure.ie.

In addition, Declan Cahill will join Aon as the new chiefexecutive officer of Insure.ie. He has more than 35 years ofexperience in the insurance market in Ireland. Mr. Cahill waspreviously director of AA Insurance in Ireland for 30 years.

Aon said there will be no other changes to the senior managementteam and no redundancies or job losses.

In a statement, Richard Endersen, managing director of Aon inIreland, said that "Aon is delighted to have agreed to this dealwith one of the longest established insurance brokers in thecountry. The personal lines insurance market (motor, home, traveland health insurance) accounts for half of Ireland's totalinsurance revenue. With this investment, Aon now has a realpresence with the scale, systems and expertise in the personallines market that will allow Aon to grow significantly."

Aon said it now employs more than 600 people on the island ofIreland across its sites in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick andMullingar. The company added that it intends to continue to growacross all sectors of the insurance business in Ireland.