Hitwise, the Australia-based website monitoring company, is reportedly up for sale with an asking price of around £180m.

According to the Daily Telegraph, advisors Deutsche Bank are thought to have distributed an information memorandum to a number of potential buyers. 

Hitwise was established by Australian entrepreneurs Andrew Barlow and Adrian Giles in February 1997. It now measures the usage habits of over 25 million internet users, and sells the data to 1,200 clients worldwide. Besides Australia, the firm has operations in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and the UK.

United Business Media, Experian and a number of private equity groups have been tipped as possible buyers.