In a memo sent to employees Friday, CEO Mike Perlis said the company has received indications of interest from investors for a deal.
"The frequency and serious nature of these overtures have brought us to a decision point," he wrote. "We have hired Deutsche Bank to represent us, and we expect interest from numerous suitors."
The company is looking to sell for about $400 million, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The magazine, founded in 1917 by business journalist B. C. Forbes, has been aggressively investing in its digital properties recently to make up for the sluggishness in the print ad market.
In a profile of Perlis that ran in the New York Times earlier this week, a Forbes spokeswoman said that advertising revenue for Forbes.com would grow by 35% from 2010 to 2013.
Forbes' ad pages in the magazine fell 1% in the third quarter from a year ago, while ad dollars grew 3%, according to the Association of Magazine Media.
Elevation Partners, an investment firm, bought a minority stake in the company in 2006.
"Digital revenues are expected to increase over 25% by the end of the year," Perlis wrote. "Our efforts have also focused on diversifying our revenue streams to complement our advertising-based businesses - and many of our initiatives have come to fruition this year.
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