Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for higher education,

K–12 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an English language expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States and Canada, which is similar to publicly supported sch ...

, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(June 27, 2014
Global Publishing Leaders 2014: Cengage
publishersweekly.comCompany Info – Wall Street Journal
Cengage Learning
Company Overview of Cengage Learning, Inc.
BloombergBusiness

Cengage Unlimited

On December 5, 2017, Cengage announced Cengage Unlimited, a subscription service that allows students to pay for access to the company's entire digital higher education catalog by the semester or year, rather than buying individual textbooks. This service became available during summer 2018, and was reported to be "in line with expectations" with its initial sales goal. The

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

is the first university to offer this plan to all students, effective January 2019.

History

International Thomson Publishing International Thomson Organization (ITO) was a Canadian holding company that was active from 1978 to 1989, with interests in publishing, travel, and natural resources. It was created as a part of a corporate restructuring of the Thomson Organizat ...

entered the publishing business by buying Wadsworth Publishing in 1979. In 1981 International Thomson purchased the publishing operations of

Litton Industries Litton Industries, Inc., was an American defense contractor that specialized in shipbuilding, aerospace, electronic components, and information technology. The company was founded in 1953 and was named after inventor Charles Litton Sr., who was ...

, including Van Nostrand Reinhold and Delmar. International Thomson acquired reference publisher

Gale Research Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research ...

in 1985. International Thomson acquired South-Western Publishing from SFN in 1986. In 1992, Thomson acquired Course Technology. In 1995, Thomson acquired educational reference publisher

Peterson's Peterson's is an American company that has print and digital products and services, including test preparation, memory retention techniques, and financial aid and scholarship searches. Peterson's is currently headquartered in Denver, Colorado. ...

. In 1997, Van Nostrand Reinhold was sold to

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...

. In 2000, Thomson Learning was created out of a restructuring of International Thomson Publishing. Later that year Thomson acquired the higher education title of Harcourt from

Reed Elsevier RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...

, and the test prep publisher Arco from

IDG Books International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is an American market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketi ...

. In 2002, Wadsworth acquired F.E. Peacock Publishers. It was announced on October 25, 2006, that Thomson Learning would be offered for sale by the

Thomson Corporation Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reut ...

, with an estimated value of up to US$5 billion. The company was bought by a private equity consortium consisting of

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

and

OMERS Capital Partners The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) is a Canadian public pension fund, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. OMERS is a defined benefit, jointly sponsored, multi-employer public pension plan created in 1962 by Ontario provinci ...

for US$7.75 billion, and the name was changed to Cengage Learning on July 24, 2007. In 2007, Cengage Learning sold Peterson's to Nelnet. In 2011, Cengage Learning acquired the National Geographic Society's school publishing unit, and combined this school business with the Global ELT business to create and launch the National Geographic Learning brand. The global brand combined the former Cengage Learning ELT and National Geographic School Publishing imprints and sub-brands under one unified identity.Jinks, Beth (June 24, 2011
Apax's Cengage Buying National Geographic's School Publisher
Bloomberg.com In September 2013, David Shaffer retired as chairman of the company. He had previously been executive vice president of The Thomson Corporation from 2005 to 2006, and then President and CEO of both Thomson Publishing International and Thomson Learning. The company had acquired a large amount of debt through the course of its initial buyout and subsequent acquisitions, and had seen declining revenue through a shrinking market for paper textbooks. Cengage Learning filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on July 2, 2013.Howard, Jennifer (July 3, 2013
Publisher's Bankruptcy Filing Comes as Market for Print Textbooks Shrinks
The Chronicle of Higher Education Cengage Learning emerged from bankruptcy on April 1, 2014, eliminating approximately $4 billion of its funded debt and securing $1.75 billion in exit financing. Post-bankruptcy, the company decided to focus on developing digital study guides and other educational supplements, as well as hard-copy textbooks. The company moved its headquarters from

, to Boston. In January 2015, they announced expansion of their LearnLaunch Accelerator program, which provides seed funding and intensive coaching to promising startups, to the

University of Chihuahua The Autonomous University of Chihuahua (in ) is a Mexican public university based in the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, but with several campuses across the state. In December 8, 1954, the State Legislature, with Governor Oscar Soto Maynez, iss ...

in Mexico. In November 2016, Cengage Learning rebranded as simply Cengage. In May 2019, Cengage announced its potential merger with another major publisher,

McGraw-Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

, thereby creating a duopoly with Pearson in the market and would have used McGraw-Hill as the merged corporate name with Michael Hansen as CEO. It is estimated Cengage has 24% of the market while McGraw-Hill has 21%, Pearson, the current market leader, has about 40 percent of the market and Wiley has about 7 percent. The merger was called off on May 1, 2020. In August 2021, Cengage rebranded as Cengage Group.

Acquisitions

In addition to organic growth, Cengage has expanded through acquisitions within the publishing industry. Notable acquisitions include:

Brands/imprints

The company's product lines include 4LTR Press, Aplia, Cengage Learning PTR, Chilton, Education To Go,

Gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

, Milady, MindTap, and National Geographic Learning. Since 2015, South-Western products have been branded as Cengage Learning."There's a new way to find South-Western titles"
, Cengage Learning. Retrieved April 8, 2017. Cengage Unlimited, a SaaS solution, launched on August 1, 2018. (August 4, 2018
eLearning Inside News: Cengage
/ref>

Rankings

In 2016, based on its 2015 revenues, ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' ranked the company 14 out of 57 publishers worldwide, a decline of three slots from the previous year. The list includes both trade and educational publishers."The World's 57 Largest Book Publishers, 2015"
''publishersweekly''.com. June 26, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015.

References

External links

National Geographic Learning, part of Cengage Learning

ed2go, part of Cengage Learning
{{Authority control American companies established in 2007 Book publishing companies based in Massachusetts Educational publishing companies of the United States Textbook publishing companies Companies based in Boston Education companies established in 2007 Publishing companies established in 2007 2007 establishments in Massachusetts Privately held companies based in Massachusetts Apax Partners companies Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013

Company information