Last week, McGraw Hill Financial announced it will be exploring "strategic alternatives" for J.D. Power, our local Westlake Village based marketing information services company. McGraw Hill indicates 2016 revenues will approach $350 million.

"Strategic alternatives" basically means seeking a buyer. Reuters indicates J.D. Power could fetch as much as $1 billion in a sale.

J.D. Power and Associates was founded on April 1, 1968 by J.D. "Dave" Power III with his wife Julie at their home in Calabasas. On April 1, 2005 the company was acquired by The McGraw-Hill Companies (renamed McGraw Hill Financial in 2013 to more closely align the company name to its core business).

McGraw Hill did not disclose the purchase price of J.D. Power and Associates in 2005, but it did indicate in its 2006 annual SEC filing that it paid $461.8 million to acquire several businesses, including Vista Research, J.D. Power and 49% of CRISIL, Limited.

J.D. Power contributed $144.7 million of revenue to McGraw Hill's bottom line from 4/1/05 to 12/31/05, which translates to about $190 million in annual revenue that year.

Learn more about J.D. Power at www.jdpower.com.