origin united states headquarters location boston key people michael hansen chief executive officer fernando bleichmar chief strategy officer alexander broich president international ken carson general counsel jim donohue chief product officer sandi kirshner chief marketing officer george moore chief technology officer kevin stone chief sales and marketing officer publication types educational content technology and services imprints 4ltr press aplia cengage learning ptr chilton ed2go gale milady mindtap national geographic learning revenue us 1.5 billion 2014 owner s apax partners searchlight capital partners kohlberg kravis roberts & co. oaktree capital management oak hill advisors blackrock financial management franklin mutual advisers and others 1 number of employees 5 500 2014 official website www.cengage.com cengage learning inc. is an educational content technology and services company for the higher education k 12 professional and library markets worldwide . cengage learning has operations in more than 20 countries around the world . 2 3 4 contents 1 company information 2 services 3 history 3.1 acquisitions 4 brands imprints 5 rankings 6 notes 7 references 8 external links company information edit the company is headquartered in boston massachusetts and has approximately 5 500 employees worldwide across 20 countries . citation needed it was headquartered at its stamford connecticut office until april 2014 . gale is cengage learning s library reference arm and specializes in e research and educational publishing for libraries schools and businesses . the company creates and maintains databases that are published online in print as e books and in microform . 5 services edit cengage learning offers print and digital textbooks instructor supplements online reference databases distance learning courses test preparation materials corporate training courses career assessment tools materials for specific academic disciplines and custom solutions . history edit cengage learning formerly thomson learning which owned the wadsworth publishing imprint was created out of a restructuring of international thomson publishing . it was announced on october 25 2006 that thomson learning would be offered for sale by the thomson corporation with an estimated value of up to us 5 billion . 6 7 the company was bought by a private equity consortium consisting of apax partners and omers capital partners for us 7.75 billion and the name was changed to cengage learning on 24 july 2007 . 8 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 . 9 in september 2013 david shaffer retired from his role of chairman of the company 10 shaffer 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 . 11 the company had acquired a large amount of debt through the course of its initial buyout and subsequent acquisitions and seen declining revenue through a shrinking market for paper text books . cengage learning filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11 on july 2 2013 . 8 12 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 text books . 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 in mexico . 13 14 acquisitions edit in addition to organic growth cengage learning has expanded through acquisitions within the publishing industry . notable acquisitions include date of acquisition announced asset acquired industry 1 march 2004 education to go 15 online continuing education courses 16 may 2008 pal publications 16 professional reference series 2 june 2008 houghton mifflin college division 16 publishing for 2 and 4 year colleges 17 july 2008 gatlin education services 17 web based training for education providers 16 december 2008 highbeam research 18 paid search engine of newspapers and magazines 1 august 2011 national geographic school publishing 9 publishing for k 12 schools september 2015 learning objects inc learning management systems and adaptive education tools october 2015 pathbrite inc eportfolio services for learning reflection and career advancement brands imprints edit the company s product lines include 4ltr press aplia cengage learning ptr chilton education to go gale milady mindtap and national geographic learning . rankings edit in 2016 based on its 2015 revenues publishers weekly ranked the company at number 14 out of 57 publishers worldwide a decline of three slots from the previous year . the list includes both trade and educational publishers . 19 notes edit callum borchers 1 april 2014 . cengage emerges from bankruptcy with boston as its electronic publishing base . bostonglobe.com . retrieved 2014 09 15 . jun 27 2014 global publishing leaders 2014 cengage publishersweekly.com company info wall street journal . cengage learning company overview of cengage learning inc. bloombergbusiness gale a cengage learning company caul council of australian university librarians thomas helen 25 october 2006 thomson to put learning unit on the block . ft alphaville . financial times . october 25 2006 thomson to sell education units boston.com a b cengage learning files for bankruptcy . new york times . july 2 2013 . retrieved 2014 11 07 . a b jinks beth june 24 2011 apax s cengage buying national geographic s school publisher bloomberg.com edgecliffe johnson andrew july 6 2013 debt laden cengage in hunt for new chief the financial times executive profile david h. shaffer bloomberg.com howard jennifer july 3 2013 publisher s bankruptcy filing comes as market for print textbooks shrinks the chronicle of higher education borchers callum april 01 2014 cengage exits bankruptcy focuses on e books in boston bostonglobe.com shulman eden 12 feb 2015 1 betaboston boston globe macfadyen ken june 9 2008 thomson course technology acquires education to go to expand continuing education offerings a b macfadyen ken june 9 2008 cengage buys houghton mifflin s college unit themiddlemarket.com cengage learning acquired gatlin education services . was this a good decision owler.com polanka sue dec 16 2008 http www.libraries.wright.edu noshelfrequired 2008 12 16 highbeam research now part of galecengage no shelf required wright state university libraries the world s 57 largest book publishers 2015 publishersweekly.com . jun 26 2015 . retrieved 2015 09 07 . references edit mike w. peng global business 2009 p 3 hoover s handbook of world business 2011 2011 p 355 press release ed2go press release houghton mifflin boston herald houghton mifflin acquisition external links edit official website national geographic learning part of cengage learning ed2go a part of cengage learning cengagebrain.com v t e cengage learning academic and professional chilton national geographic learning gale blackbirch charles scribner s sons christian large print five star graham & whiteside greenhaven highbeam research infotrac kennebec large print kidhaven large print press lucent macmillan reference usa primary source questia schirmer reference st. james taft thorndike twayne u x l wheeler authority control worldcat identities viaf 158533105 lccn nb2008009890 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cengage learning & oldid 743301280 categories cengage learningbook publishing companies 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