Latest to Consider dunnhumby Bid: Dunn and Humby?

According to reports in the press, dunnhumby founders Edwina Dunn and Clive Humby are 'considering involvement' in a bid to buy back the company from Tesco.

Britain's biggest retailer has been forced to look for a buyer for dunnhumby to try and redress its balance sheet. So far, reports have linked the firm with a long list of possible bidders, including venture capital firm TPG; marcoms giant WPP; Nielsen; UK-based former Tesco executive and Dixons boss John Browett; Google, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, where former Tesco chief exec Sir Terry Leahy is a partner; private equity firms Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus; and Oracle. Initial rumours suggested a price tag of around £2bn, but following the recent dissolution of the firm's JV with US supermarket chain Kroger, some analysts have speculated that this figure may have halved.

dunnhumby, which first started working with Tesco in 1995, analyses till data captured through the Tesco Clubcard to access the shopping behaviour, purchasing patterns, and trends of millions of households worldwide. Founding husband and wife team Dunn and Humby sold their final shares in the company to Tesco in 2011 for £48m, and then set up data mining company H&D Ventures, which was later acquired by social media analytics firm Starcount. UK newspaper the FT now says the pair are considering making a bid to buy back the firm they founded in 1989.

According to the FT, 'two people familiar with the situation' claim the husband-and-wife team would be prepared to work with a private equity group to gain back control of dunnhumby, although they are not thought to be involved in the auction process yet. Dunn told the newspaper that she was 'not actively negotiating' a purchase, but declined to comment further. First round bids are due next month.