Dive Brief:

• Commercial real estate giants DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield plan to merge their companies by year’s end to form one of the largest global property services companies in the world.

• The combined company will operate under the name Cushman & Wakefield, and is expected to pose a substantial competitive threat to other mega real estate service firms.

• Chicago-based DTZ reportedly will pay $2.04 billion to acquire Cushman & Wakefield, located in New York City, from Exor. The merged company will employ 43,000, take in more than $5.5 billion in annual revenue, and operate in 250 offices in more than 50 countries.

Dive Insight:

The newly merged firm will take its place in the global real estate world behind industry leader CRBE and second-place JLL, whose revenues are reportedly about the same as the combined Cushman & Wakeman/DTZ firm has projected for itself.

Brett White, CRBE’s former chief executive, will run the new firm, which he called a “third formidable competitor at the highest end of this industry,” which has been in “a bit of a two-horse race,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald.