The publisher of titles such as Jane's Defence Weekly and Jane's Navy Journal, is owned by Canada's Woodbridge Group, which is understood to have hired US investment bank Greenhill to find buyers for the company.
Reed Business Information, which owns rival Flight International, is one rival expected to consider making a bid.
Jane's was founded in 1898 by Fred T Jane, who began it as a compilation of warship sketches. Jane went on to launch 'Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships', which soon became an authoritative guide to ship recognition and naval intelligence.Since then Jane's various publications have gone on to become a leading source of global defence, aerospace and transportation information for governments, business leaders and the defence establishment.
This value of this "must-have" information, combined with a revenue source mostly derived from subscriptions and the internet, rather than more advertising, is reflected in the £50m price tag.
The company has refused to comment on a sale.
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