John Haley; the Chief Executive of Towers Watson & Co, sold shares in the company for a profit of about $9.7 million while the firm was in talks over a possible merger with Willis Group Holdings. The announcement of the $18 billion transaction on June 30 costed Towers Watson $800 million in market value. According to a regulatory filing in March; Haley exercised 106,933 stock options and sold the rest of the shares. The trades were cleared by the company’s lawyers and took place in the early stages of the merger talks. Haley has announced he plans to head the merged firm. Shares for the firm closed at $120.16 on Wednesday, a 13% drop from June 29. The company has lost $1.2 billion in market value in that time period.