On the record · Other
Cengage Learning
Apax Partners and OMERS Private Equity sold Cengage (formerly Thomson Learning) to various PE hands including Carlyle. Cengage filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 with $5.8B in debt, largely from its 2007 LBO. Students faced continued high textbook prices throughout.
Research depth
Outcomes researched
Reviewed operating findings or a classified operating outcome are available.
Record updated Sept. 4, 2026
Current ownership
Current owner not established
This record does not identify a current owner. That absence is a gap in the record, not a conclusion about ownership.
1 ownership record has an unresolved current/former status.
Ownership and transaction history
Chronology from recorded ownership periods, transactions and reviewed outcome events. Event order does not imply causation.
Date not recorded
What happened under and after ownership
Operating outcome
Operating through distress or restructuring
Formed in a 2007 Apax and OMERS buyout of Thomson Learning that left it with about $5.8 billion of debt, Cengage filed Chapter 11 in July 2013 and kept selling textbooks throughout. It emerged April 1, 2014 after cutting about $4 billion of debt, with the sponsors' original equity expunged.
Operates today as Cengage Group under lenders/creditors who took equity in the 2014 restructuring, not the original Apax/OMERS buyout ownership.
- Founded
- 2007
- Sponsor at closure
- Apax Partners and OMERS Private Equity
- Inside Higher Ed · 2014 · Cengage emerged from Chapter 11 April 1, 2014 after eliminating about $4 billion in debt
- Bloomberg · 2013 · 2013 Chapter 11 filing; non-U.S. subsidiaries excluded and continued operating without interruption
- Mergr (M&A deal database) · 2007 Apax Partners/OMERS Private Equity leveraged buyout of Cengage from Thomson for about $7.75 billion, leaving $5.8 billion in debt
What we do not know
These are gaps in the public record, not findings about the organization.
- No current public ownership assessment has been published.
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