The company creates and maintains databases that are published online, in print, as e-books and in microform.

In 1981 International Thomson purchased the publishing operations of Litton Industries, including Van Nostrand Reinhold and Delmar.

[16] Later that year Thomson acquired the higher education title of Harcourt from Reed Elsevier,[17] and the test prep publisher Arco from IDG Books.

[23] 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.

[26] 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.

Post-bankruptcy, the company decided to focus on developing digital study guides and other educational supplements, as well as hard-copy textbooks.

[28] 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.

[citation needed] In addition to organic growth, Cengage has expanded through acquisitions within the publishing industry.