(Reuters) – Otter Products LLC, the private company that makes OtterBox protective cases for mobile phones, is considering a sale that could value the company at more than $2.5 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter .

Otter Products, founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Curt Richardson and owned by him and his family, has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc to handle the sale process, the people said this week.

Some private equity firms have expressed interest in the company, the sources added, warning that no deal is certain.

The sources asked not to be identified because the sale process is not public. Otter Products did not respond to a request for comment while Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, Otter Products manufactures cases for handsets produced by Apple Inc, LG Corp and BlackBerry Ltd. The company describes OtterBox as the best-selling protective case for smartphones in the United States and Canada.

Richardson invented OtterBox while working on waterproof cell phone cases in his garage. His wife named him after the fur of the eponymous animal.

As cell phones adapted touchscreens, the demand for protective cases grew, a trend that Richardson capitalized on. In 2013, Otter Products had pro forma sales of approximately $925 million, according to Moody’s Investors Service Inc.

Apple products account for more than 75% of Otter Products’ revenue, according to Moody’s. Otter Products expanded last year through the acquisition of smaller rival LifeProof. The company competes with Incipio Technologies Inc.

The consumer electronics sector has recently had some big wins for private equity firms. Carlyle Group LP, for example, nearly doubled its roughly $500 million investment in Beats Electronics, the company best known for its line of Beats by Dr Dre headphones, after Apple acquired Beats earlier this month. this, just 10 months after Carlyle’s investment.