The merger will add 14 new corporate offices, bringing the total number of offices worldwide to 184, Dyer says. "The majority of the projected integration expenses, of approximately $25 million, will be occurred in 2008," Martin says. Staubach has more than 300 stakeholders, "the majority of which are operators in the company," she says.

There has been talk that the cultures of the two firms are quite different, but Dyer says there are some important similarities. "Both businesses are strongly committed to client service,…commitment to dealing with honesty and integrity…,and we are committed to collaborating internally," Dyer says. There is "a huge basis of mutual respect as well," he adds. "If there is a difference, it is around the level of the way in which the two businesses compensated their revenue producers," he says. "We, at Jones Lang LaSalle, have been moving over time towards a more strongly variable compensation structure. The variable part linked more and more directly to actual production. So, we have been moving towards each other in that sense."

Staubach had only represented tenants while JLL has represented both tenants and investors, Dyer says. However, JLL has processes in place, as will the combined firm and Staubach believes that there will be "advantages" as long as there are "the appropriate safeguards," Dyer says.

The merger is one of many acquisitions JLL has done recently but officials are not precluding any future mergers. "We have had a pretty robust beginning of the year with multiple acquisitions around the world," Martin says. "We would not see ourselves doing anything of size. This structure does not prohibit ourselves from looking at some smaller opportunities as we continue to look around the globe in a consolidating industry."