Interactive Data Corp taps banks for sale or IPO: sources

By Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis (Reuters) - Interactive Data Corp, one of the world's largest financial data providers, has hired banks for a potential sale or an initial public offering that could value it at more than $5 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. IDC's owners, private equity firms Silver Lake Group LLC and Warburg Pincus LLC, have asked Credit Suisse Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to run an auction for the company, the people said. Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus are also working with banks that include Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc on an IPO that would take place if the auction attracted offers that did not meet expectations, the people added. The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is not public. IDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives of the banks and the private equity firms either declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment. IDC, a competitor of Bloomberg LP and Thomson Reuters Corp , provides financial data to clients who subscribe to its fixed-income evaluation services, real-time market data, trading infrastructure and analytics. IDC's customers include 48 of the top 50 U.S. banks, 49 of the top 50 global asset managers and all of the top 50 U.S. mutual funds, according to its annual report. Bedford, Massachusetts-based IDC was taken private in 2010 by Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus for $3.4 billion. IDC had adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2014 of $362.4 million, up from $351.6 million a year earlier. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)