How to explain "on the sales block" as in?

Question

Knight Ridder Inc. agreed to a $4 billion sale to McClatchy Co. in June after dissident shareholders confronted management about its inability to cope as more readers and advertisers go online. Another publisher, the Tribune Co., also is on the sales block, partly because of financial pressures posed by the Internet.

Answer 1

The term is now used as a euphemism, but originally objects being auctioned off, were placed on blocks so as to be better observed by possible purchasers.