(Bloomberg) -- Buyout firm Court Square Capital Partners is making a second attempt to sell Rocket Software Inc., this time for as much as $2 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The mid-market focused private equity firm has restarted an auction process for the software maker, having abandoned a previous effort earlier this year because of valuation differences, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The business, which is working with investment bank Morgan Stanley, is attracting interest from large-cap sponsors, and a deal could be completed by the end of the year, the people said. Court Square could still decide to keep the company, they said.
Representatives for Court Square, Morgan Stanley and Waltham, Massachusetts-based Rocket didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Court Square first invested in Rocket in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based firm has backed management to make acquisitions, including iCluster from International Business Machines Corp. in 2012, while refinancing the company in 2012 and 2016 to pay dividends to itself and its backers.
Rocket, founded in 1990, helps companies and others in related industries extend the life of their computing infrastructure, powering back-end systems and making it easier to to move into cloud and mobile computing, according to its website. Its customers include 43 of the Fortune 50 corporations and its products are used by more than 10 million information technology and business professionals, the company said.
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