Textbook publisher Cengage files for bankruptcy

http://www.reuters

Tue Jul 2, 2013 1:25pm EDT

(Reuters) - Cengage Learning Inc, a large U.S. textbook publisher, on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy protection, as part of a prearranged restructuring it said will help it eliminate more than $4 billion of debt.
The company, which was acquired in a 2007 leveraged buyout by private equity firm Apax Partners and Omers Capital Partners, sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Brooklyn, New York.

Cengage said it won support from a group of first-lien lenders for the restructuring, which would eliminate more than two-thirds of the Stamford, Connecticut-based company's roughly $5.8 billion of debt. Non-U.S. units are not part of the bankruptcy case.
Many textbook publishers have struggled as state and local governments reduce spending, and AS more readers get information online.
Cengage said Alvarez & Marsal is providing restructuring advice, Lazard Ltd is providing financial advice, and Kirkland & Ellis is providing legal advice on the bankruptcy.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)