Dive Brief:

• Progress Software Corp., a business software company with customers like eBay and HP, is considering a sale, according to a Reuters report.
• The company currently has a market capitalization of about $1.2 billion.
• Progress Software is “working with investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co on a limited auction process that was open to only a small number of buyout firms,” said Reuters' sources.

Dive Insight:

Progress Software is considering a sale “as part of an exploration of strategic alternatives and has spoken to private equity firms about a potential deal,” according to Reuters' sources familiar with the matter.

Several other business software makers, including SolarWinds, Solera Holdings and Informatica all chose to go private last year to, among other things, “accelerate their transition to cloud-based offerings.” In 2015, Informatica was acquired by Permira Advisers LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Microsoft Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. later joined, taking unspecified minority stakes in the company.

Progress Software develops tools to manage business applications and reported revenue of $377.6 million during the 2015 fiscal year.