Case Study: Higher-Ed Textbook Publisher Cengage Files For Bankruptcy

Higher-ed publisher Cengage Learning, Inc., filed for a prepack bankruptcy yesterday. The company is the second-largest publisher of college-course material in the U.S., and it offers, among other products, books that at least attempt to compete with our favorite textbooks.

But things haven’t been going so well. For example, sales at Cengage "dis-Cengaged," dropping 18 percent for the six months prior to Dec. 31.

As is typical in a bankruptcy filing, Cengage lists creditors to whom it owes money. Two of the more notable include well-known economics textbook author Gregory Mankiw (owed $1.6 million) and finance textbook author Eugene Brigham (owed $474,000).