Udemy is getting acquired!

00:00:00: There are some news, some news I didn't see coming.

00:00:04: I haven't heard about it any earlier than, like, one

00:00:07: or two hours ago. Udemy is getting acquired by

00:00:11: Coursera. Now, in the official announcement here by

00:00:14: Udemy, it says that they're combining, joining forces, but in the

00:00:18: end, it's an acquisition as I read it.

00:00:21: I mean, the Udemy brand will disappear and the new

00:00:25: board of directors will have more people from Coursera than Udemy.

00:00:29: The new CEO will be the old CEO by Coursera.

00:00:33: So yeah, it's an acquisition. Now, there

00:00:36: aren't a lot of details yet. It's not really

00:00:40: clear to me and probably not to anybody else,

00:00:44: maybe except for a very small inner circle, what

00:00:47: exactly will happen to Udemy over the

00:00:51: next year or years. I mean, for now, it's continuing

00:00:55: as always. The deal hasn't closed yet.

00:00:59: Of course, there is a danger of it not closing

00:01:03: at all, though I guess that's unlikely.

00:01:05: And it's also not really a huge surprise that

00:01:09: some consolidation is happening in that space.

00:01:13: I mean, the last couple of years have been rough.

00:01:17: I shared a video, why nobody's creating coding tutorials

00:01:21: anymore last week, and it's kind of ironic because, yeah,

00:01:25: I didn't know about these news but kind of fits the theme.

00:01:28: It's been a- a rough stretch with the macroeconomics,

00:01:32: with AI obviously, and all these companies,

00:01:36: they're facing some problems, some challenges.

00:01:38: So yeah, I guess a merger, an acquisition, whatever you wanna call

00:01:42: it, makes sense. I also don't know what

00:01:46: it'll mean for me as a Udemy instructor, and

00:01:51: with that I mean I really don't know.

00:01:53: I don't know if we Udemy instructors will be part of this

00:01:57: new long-term strategy. Obviously, I'm not going

00:02:01: away short term. (laughs) I'm- I'm still there, I will stay there,

00:02:05: um, but I don't know what that means.

00:02:08: I don't know what that means for learners.

00:02:11: There are no details regarding that.

00:02:13: But of course, Coursera is not buying Udemy just to get rid

00:02:17: of all the courses, all the customers, all the instructors.

00:02:20: So clearly, that will not be the plan.

00:02:23: But yeah, there are a lot of unknowns, and therefore I don't

00:02:27: really wanna speculate about any of that here

00:02:31: in- in this video. I just wanted to share the news and

00:02:36: one important very personal thought

00:02:40: about this deal. For almost

00:02:44: exactly 10 years, Udemy has

00:02:46: been a super important part of my professional

00:02:50: life. Obviously, I've created dozens of

00:02:53: courses. I am one of the biggest instructors on the

00:02:57: platform. I've taught more than three million

00:03:01: is an astonishing number, and as I mentioned, I plan

00:03:05: to continue doing that. Don't get me wrong.

00:03:07: I'm not leaving, I'm not getting kicked out of there.

00:03:10: There are no details yet. But the Udemy brand will

00:03:14: disappear. The Udemy name will disappear.

00:03:18: The new platform will be called Coursera,

00:03:22: and that is really kind of a weird,

00:03:26: sad feeling. I mean, it's just a

00:03:30: name, sure. It's been an

00:03:33: integral part of my professional life for the last 10

00:03:37: years. I've said that name or thought about

00:03:41: that name probably trillions of time, and

00:03:45: there's a lot you could criticize about Udemy

00:03:48: and, uh, a lot I could criticize about

00:03:52: Udemy. And- and again, it's- it's not goodbye here.

00:03:55: Don't get me wrong. It's super easy to feel like that's the

00:03:59: this video. It's not. (laughs) But saying goodbye to that

00:04:03: name is really a weird feeling. Yeah,

00:04:07: I'll leave it at that. Kind of a different video.

00:04:10: Um, we'll see what the future holds.

00:04:13: Again, I'm not going anywhere. I'll also keep doing videos here,

00:04:17: I'll share whenever there is something to share.

00:04:19: But yeah, just figured this

00:04:23: news might be worth sharing

00:04:25: too.