Cedar Rapids major employer Hibu not for sale, CEO says

The CEO of digital marketer Hibu Inc. said Monday morning that the U.S. business is not for sale.

Kevin Jasper, Hibu Inc.'s chief executive, said it was corporate policy not to comment on news articles beyond that statement.

The Telegraph of London reported in January that the Reading, United Kingdom, company, once part of British Telephone, was up for sale. The investment bank of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd. in London has been hired to find a buyer, the newspaper said.

Hibu Inc. has some 600 employees in the Town Center building, 221 Third Ave. SE, where it moved in late 2016 and making it one of downtown Cedar Rapids' largest employers. Cedar Rapids is the company's U.S. headquarters, Jasper said.

Hibu is owned by a large consortium of lenders, 'who have already sold off its businesses in Spain and Latin America. Now the remaining British and American operations have been put up for sale,” according to the Telegraph.

Hibu had filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States in 2016.