CLEVELAND, Ohio--Northeast Ohio's largest software company, Hyland Software, may be for sale.

The Reuters news service reported Thursday that Thoma Bravo LLC was exploring the sale of Hyland. It cited unnamed sources.

The San Francisco-based private equity firm declined to confirm or deny the story Friday.

Thoma Bravo bought a controlling interest in Hyland in 2007 for a reported $265 million. Since the transaction, the locally grown company has mushroomed into a tech giant that provides enterprise content management software to businesses and organizations around the world.

Hyland Software employs more than 1,000 people locally and is in the process of expanding its headquarters campus off Clemens Road in Westlake.

According to Reuters, Thoma Bravo is working with Goldman Sachs to explore the sale of Hyland, which could be worth more than $1.2 billion based on earnings. The sources asked not to be identified because the sale processes are confidential, Reuters reported.

On Friday afternoon, Hyland issued a statement that told of business as usual but did not address the sale issue squarely. Company spokesman PJ Carter said via email that "Hyland Software is not in the process of selling the company or a significant stake in the company."

He did not respond to phone calls and emails asking whether Hyland's owner was in the process of selling the company.

Thoma Bravo spokesman Ted Lane confirmed his firm owns a controlling interest in Hyland but would not discuss what he called rumors.

"We don't comment on any potential sales or acquisitions," he said.

As Reuters pointed out, the private equity firm has seen big profits selling companies it controls, most recently Digital Insight Inc., which it agreed this week to sell to NCR for $1.65 billion.

A local business expert said the sale of Hyland is only a matter of time and may not be bad news for Northeast Ohio.

Buyout firms like Thoma Bravo seek to buy and build up companies to sell for a profit, said Thomas Waltermire, the former chief executive officer at PolyOne Corp. and the CEO of the regional business attraction agency Team NEO.

"As soon as a private equity firm bought in, it was only a matter of time before they were going to sell," he said. "That's completely normal."

In a worst-case scenario, Hyland would be bought by a "strategic buyer," a company in the same line of work, which would fold Hyland's operation into its own and eliminate redundant jobs in Northeast Ohio, Waltermire said.

But Thoma Bravo owns only a portion of Hyland, he noted, and most strategic buyers want to purchase the whole company, not just a controlling interest. He said it's possible Hyland would be sold to another private equity firm.

"As long as the next buyer is buying Hyland for its fabulous track record, there's no reason it would change its operations," Waltermire said. "It's just a change in shareholders."