Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the “big three” of education publishers, announced last week that it would undergo financial restructuring to manage its sizable debt.
The company has made agreements with 70 percent of its lenders and bondholders to eliminate $3.1 billion in debt by turning it into equity, and to reorganize through a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, according to a news release. The process will be complete by the end of June, the company said.
In an email to staff, Chief Executive Officer Linda Zecher stressed that there would be no layoffs or effect on payroll as a result of the reorganization. She said there will be no effect on customers or business partners.
This is the second restructuring the company has undergone since 2006, when Education Media & Publishing Group Ltd., in Dublin, (formerly Riverdeep PLC), bought Houghton Mifflin and joined it with Harcourt Education, which it later purchased from Reed Elsevier.
