By Anupreeta Das and William Launder

Knology Inc., a publicly traded cable and communication services provider in southeastern U.S., is shopping itself to potential buyers including private-equity firms, people familiar with the matter said.

Headquartered in West Point, Ga., Knology provides cable TV, phone and high-speed Internet services to residential and business customers in states such as Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee. The company hired a financial adviser in recent weeks, the people said. The process will likely focus on finding a private equity buyer and there's no guarantee a deal will be reached, they added.

Shares of Knology rose as much as 12% to $17.71 Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported the news and closed at $17.47, giving the company a market capitalization of around $659 million. However, it has around $700 million of net debt, so including a transaction premium, the total enterprise value of a deal could be around $1.5 billion, the people said. The company is seeking around eight times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), one person familiar with the matter said.

A Knology representative did not respond to requests for comment.