IMAX could be for sale. Here’s who would buy it

Wall Street is buzzing following reports that IMAX is exploring a sale.

Shares of the movie theater technology company were up roughly 14% Friday on speculation about potential buyers. A source familiar with the company told CNBC that IMAX has held “preliminary talks” through intermediaries, but no official pitches have been made by the company.

CNBC’s source spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions. The Wall Street Journal first reported the potential sale process.

While IMAX may not be actively pursuing a sale, CEO Rich Gelfond has left the door open for a possible buyout. In December, he told shareholders during the company’s investor day that IMAX is “an incredibly valuable player, either as a wholly differentiated publicly-traded company or as part of a larger company.”

Wall Street analysts broadly see IMAX as an attractive asset that could draw interest from a variety of businesses, from Hollywood studios and theatrical partners to fellow tech companies. Several analysts wrote that IMAX is currently undervalued.

“IMAX is a rare combination of a globally recognized premium brand, an asset-light licensing model, and a structurally expanding earnings profile,” Wedbush Senior Vice President of Equity Research Alicia Reese wrote in a research note published Friday. “IMAX is trading at a discount to what we believe the business is worth as a standalone entity, let alone as a strategic acquisition target.”

As of midday Friday, IMAX shares were trading at nearly $39 apiece for a market capitalization of roughly $2.1 billion.

“A prospective acquirer would be buying one of the most defensible moats in entertainment for what amounts to a rounding error on the balance sheet of any major studio or technology platform,” Reese wrote.

Reese suggested that IMAX’s most likely suitors would include private equity, Netflix, Apple and Sony.

Private equity would avoid any potential conflict issues, as there would be no competing interest for screens, she noted.

Netflix, meanwhile, does not rely on theatrical releases as part of its main programing strategy, therefore its conflict of interest would be smaller than traditional Hollywood studios. Additionally, owning IMAX would provide any filmmaker that signed on to work with Netflix the opportunity for premium theatrical runs and could act as a “powerful recruiting tool,” according to Reese.

As for Apple and Sony, both companies have strong technology businesses in addition to theatrical and streaming content. Although, Sony does not have its own streaming platform, while Apple has AppleTV.

“We would be surprised if any of the major Hollywood studios pursued an acquisition of IMAX given the competition with other studios for key IMAX release windows (and the likelihood that a studio would…