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Reuters, the listed UK business information company, has been the subject of ongoing takeover speculation since the middle of last year as the company's market capitalization has plummeted from a high of £20bn three years ago to £1.5bn on Monday.

Usually the resident of newspaper market reports, these rumours have often put private equity houses in the frame. An analysis by mergermarket discovered that these rumours do have a degree of substance to them, although it appears to be unlikely they will see any concrete outcome in the near term.

One source said that Reuters has indeed been approached by at least one private equity house interested in discussing a break-up bid for the company. It appears that US investment groups with media sector expertise, including Bain Capital, are among those to have considered such a move.

Reuters is not thought to have taken these discussions forward and a spokesperson said they could not comment on takeover speculation. Bain Capital also declined to comment.

It is understood that one informal proposal involved a break-up of the company into its media content operation on the one hand and its terminals businesses on the other. The non-media operations, comprising the network and the market data would be acquired for cash under this plan, the source suggested.

The remaining news content business would remain under its existing ownership, possibly with the same listing. Such a structure would also allow any potential bidder to get around Reuters' Founders Share mechanism, whereby the Reuters Foundation has the casting vote in any takeover move to protect the independence and non-bias of its content, they said.

This mechanism would make it virtually impossible for a private equity group to acquire Reuters, as it would severely restrict the exit opportunities available to it. The network part of Reuters could be sold on to a trade player like Thomson while the market data could be run for cash leaving open the prospect of an IPO in better markets.

One source familiar with Reuters' situation said they doubted the prospective interest would amount to much.

"Once they look at cash flow, earnings statements and stability they will not go for it," the source said. "It's a very tough industry for a private equity firm to get into and the news service cannot exist on a standalone basis. You need the whole vendor news service to be kept together as a whole to make Reuters work."

A deal for Reuters represents a low likelihood and the company will most probably concentrate on non-core disposals. The company's interests in Radianz, Tower Group,Yankee Group, Tibco and Instinet have all been flagged up as non-core, but the latter two may be difficult to divest. Tibco is highly integrated into the Reuters offering and Instinet may not fetch the right price.