Founded in 2004, Alerian provides indexes that track energy and infrastructure companies. Total assets linked to the Alerian Index Series exceeded $19 billion through the firm’s exchange-traded products, delta one notes and separately managed accounts, the firm said on its website. The current sale of Alerian targeted strategics and the company was seeking bids of $1 billion, sources said. Proposals came in low, around $600 million, one of the people said. Alerian is opening up the auction and will be focusing on private equity firms, sources said. A third source, a PE executive, said the logic for targeting PE is flawed. Private equity firms typically cannot compete with...