Informa Group, the publishing and events business, could be a bid target for investors.
It is thought that private equity companies Carlyle and Apax are interested in making bids. Informa Group, which is understood to be worth £1.5bn, has fallen sharply this year along with other media companies.
It has been suggested that a US publishing company, or Axel Springer, Europe's biggest newspaper publisher, might be interested in putting in a bid.
Informa is an international provider of specialist information and services for professional and commercial businesses.
Informa has 150 sites across the globe and employs 7,500 staff in about 40 countries.
Informa's services include publishing 2,000 subscription-based information services which include academic journals and real-time news.
The company also has a book business which has 40,000 business and academic titles in print.
