Coursera and Udemy agree merger in major learning platform deal

Coursera and Udemy have agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction that would bring together two of the largest global digital learning platforms, in a move that underlines growing consolidation pressures across the workplace learning market.

The deal, announced on 17 December, values the combined business at around $2.5 billion and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. Coursera shareholders are expected to own about 59 per cent of the merged company, Udemy shareholders the remaining 41 per cent.

The combined organisation will operate under the Coursera name, retain its New York Stock Exchange listing and remain headquartered in Mountain View, California. Coursera chief executive Greg Hart will continue as CEO, while Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng will remain chair.

From a product perspective these are two platforms with overlapping but distinct strengths. Coursera has built its position around university partnerships, accredited programmes and professional certificates, while Udemy is known for its open marketplace of instructor-led content and its growing enterprise offering, Udemy Business.

Together, the companies reported annual revenues of more than $1.5 billion. They have highlighted anticipated annual run-rate cost synergies of $115 million within 24 months of completion, signalling a clear focus on operational efficiency.

Timing

While the announcement leans heavily on the language of artificial intelligence and skills transformation, the transaction also reflects more pragmatic forces shaping the learning technology sector.

Publicly listed learning platforms have faced sustained pressure to demonstrate profitable growth, particularly as enterprise customers become more selective about learning spend and demand clearer evidence of investment impact. At the same time, investment requirements for AI-driven product development have increased: when learning platforms talk about becoming ‘AI-driven’, they are no longer referring to small, experimental features, they are committing to ongoing, expensive capabilities, raising the cost of competing at scale.

By combining, Coursera and Udemy gain greater financial headroom to invest in AI features, data infrastructure and skills verification while also rationalising duplicated costs across engineering, marketing and administration.

The deal also reflects a broader convergence in the market. Over the past decade, consumer learning platforms, academic providers and enterprise learning vendors have increasingly moved into one another’s territory. And here, Coursera has expanded aggressively into workforce skills and corporate training, while Udemy has invested heavily in enterprise clients and platform-level analytics.

This merger formalises that convergence and creates a single provider spanning consumer learners, universities, governments and large employers.

For employers and L&D teams

For corporate learning leaders, the combined platform will offer a broader catalogue and more integrated pathways, blending university-backed credentials with shorter, skills-focused courses. Both companies have positioned AI-powered skills discovery and personalisation as central to their future roadmaps.

However, the merger also raises familiar questions about choice and dependency. As large platforms grow through consolidation, buyers may find fewer independent alternatives with comparable global reach. It remains to see how pricing, licensing flexibility and content diversity evolve once the businesses are integrated.

There is also the question of instructor and partner ecosystems. Udemy’s marketplace model and Coursera’s university-centric approach operate on different incentives and governance structures. How these are aligned, and whether one model is prioritised over the other, will be a key indicator of direction and how balanced the combined strategy becomes.

Wider market view

The transaction is one of the most significant combinations yet among large, listed learning platforms and is likely to prompt further strategic reassessments across the sector.

Mid-sized learning technology providers may face increased pressure to differentiate, specialise or seek partnerships of their own as scale becomes more important in enterprise sales cycles. At the same time, private equity and strategic investors may see renewed opportunity in assembling portfolios of complementary learning assets rather than backing standalone platforms: this deal is evidence that aggregation of content creates strategic value in this market.

Regulators will also scrutinise the deal, particularly given the combined reach of the two companies across consumer and enterprise learning markets globally. While the sector remains fragmented, the creation of a single provider serving millions of learners and thousands of organisations will not go unnoticed.

Next steps

The companies expect to complete the transaction in the second half of 2026. Until then, they will continue to operate independently, with integration planning likely to focus on technology alignment, go-to-market strategy and cost efficiencies.

For the workplace learning industry, the merger marks another step in the shift from fragmented course libraries towards fewer, larger platforms seeking to own the full skills lifecycle, from discovery to verification. Whether this delivers better outcomes for learners and employers, or simply reshapes the competitive landscape, will become clearer as the combined strategy takes shape.