Cengage Learning, Inc.

Cengage Learning, Inc., operating as Concept Media, supplies educational textbooks, digital courseware, and instructional materials to federal agencies as a prime contractor, competing in full-and-open procurements without set-aside designations. The company is a for-profit corporate entity headquartered in Independence, Kentucky, with a federal footprint dominated by firm fixed-price delivery orders and purchase orders placing educational content at military-connected schools and civilian federal facilities worldwide.

Customer concentration is extreme and singular. The Department of Defense Education Activity accounts for 473 of 772 total awards (61% of the vendor's prime footprint) and $84.1 million of the $90.7 million combined potential value—a 93% concentration. The next four customers combined (Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Indian Education, and Albuquerque Acquisition Office) represent only 7% of potential value. This customer concentration reflects Cengage's entrenched position as a curriculum supplier to DoDEA schools serving military families across domestic and overseas installations. Representative DoDEA work includes a $403 thousand AP Human Geography delivery order (March 2022), recurring $111 thousand to $180 thousand upper-level mathematics courseware orders (precalculus, financial algebra, AP Calculus, AP Statistics, and discrete mathematics across multiple calendar years), $39 thousand video communication pathway instructional-resource delivery orders, and $17.25 thousand engineering digital courseware orders. Non-DoDEA customers include the Bureau of Indian Education (mathematics curriculum and textbooks, orders under $50 thousand each), the U.S. Coast Guard (GALE database subscription renewals, $21 thousand), and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Gale Access Program software access, $110 thousand).

The vendor's primary vehicle is a single-award Indefinite Delivery Contract with DoDEA (HE125406D0006) carrying a $608 thousand ceiling and running through March 2028 for AP Human Geography instructional resources. This IDC alone anchors 242 of the company's 772 awards, generating $68 million in combined potential value. Four additional IDVs handle the remainder: HE125416D0001 (77 task orders, $236 thousand), HE125412D0017 (61 task orders, $207 thousand), HE125418D0002 (20 task orders, $2 million), and GSA Federal Supply Schedule GS02F9406C (19 task orders, $107 thousand). All work flows through firm fixed-price delivery orders and purchase orders with typical performance periods of one to six months.

Activity remains flat to declining. Annual award volume dropped from eleven in 2022 to seven in 2024 and 2025, with only three awards recorded in 2026 to date. However, recompete exposure is minimal—only two awards totaling $290 thousand reach completion within the next twenty-four months, leaving the bulk of the $84.1 million DoDEA portfolio beyond near-term recompete risk. By NAICS, the vendor is dominated by book publishing (413 awards) and educational support services (245 awards); by PSC, educational materials and books account for 675 of 772 awards. The vendor competes exclusively as a prime contractor—zero subcontract work appears in the source data—making Cengage a direct supplier rather than a subcontractor anchor or teaming partner for other primes.