Dun & Bradstreet, a financial information provider, has hired bankers as it explores a potential sale of itself, according to people briefed on the matter.
The company has hired JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse to assist in its efforts, these people said.
While a number of deals involving financial data providers have been struck in recent years, including a union of McGraw-Hill‘s and the CME Group‘s stock-index ventures, a sale of Dun & Bradstreet would be among the biggest. The company had a market value of nearly $3.4 billion as of Monday's closing price.
Among the potential buyers could be private equity firms.
The company, based in Short Hills, N.J., focuses in aggregating data about businesses, especially credit risks. On its Web site, it claims to have some 195 million business records in its databases.
It reported earning $260.3 million in net income atop $1.8 billion in revenue last year.
Shares of Dun & Bradstreet were up 9 .4 percent in late afternoon trading on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported news of the potential sale.
