Skillsoft acquires edtech rival, Codecademy, for US$525 million

Skillsoft, the American educational technology company that provides enterprise learning solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Codecademy, a leading online learning platform for technical skills, for approximately $525 million (R8 179 206 000,00) in cash and stock. 

Founded in 2011, Codecademy is an innovative and popular learning platform providing high-demand technical skills to approximately 40 million registered learners in nearly every country worldwide. The platform offers interactive, self-paced courses and hands-on learning in 14 programming languages across multiple domains such as application development, data science, cloud and cybersecurity. The Codecademy platform is also able to rapidly expand to deliver new skills at scale, making it highly adaptable to the evolving technical needs of learners and their employers.

The global EdTech market was valued at around US$85 Billion in 2021 and is expected to reach approximately US$218 billion in 2027

“Codecademy will significantly expand Skillsoft’s capabilities in the high-growth Tech & Dev segment,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, Chief Executive Officer of Skillsoft. “Strategic acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy. We acquired virtual instructor-led training capabilities with Global Knowledge and coaching with Pluma earlier this year. With the addition of Codecademy’s innovative capabilities, we will create an even more immersive online learning experience. When we combine Skillsoft’s enterprise customer base of more than 12,000 corporate customers and over 46 million learners with Codecademy’s 40 million learners, sophisticated digital marketing capability and influential brand, we expect to unlock  significant revenue synergies.” 

Following the close of the transaction, the Codecademy team will join Skillsoft to help further build out the leading technical skills training solution for learners globally.  

“Since our founding, Codecademy has been focused on empowering our learners to build inspiring careers in technology,” said Zach Sims, founder and CEO of Codecademy. “We have helped tens of millions of people around the world learn new technology skills. Together with Skillsoft, we will have the opportunity to rapidly increase the size of our content library and scale Codecademy across the millions of learners and thousands of companies – including approximately 75% of the Fortune 1000 – that work with Skillsoft worldwide. With additional resources and opportunities to drive growth, we are excited to embark on this important next chapter.” 

The acquisition will allow for more immersive experiences on the platform with new ways of learning and allow Codecademy to rapidly add new programming languages and technical skills at scale.

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Featured image: Supplied