When Class Central covered the Coursera-Udemy merger completion, Hugo Sarrazin’s role was unclear. Not anymore. He’s joining Avalara, a tax and compliance company, as CEO. Here’s the thing. Neither an SEC filing nor a public post announced the departure of the 14-month CEO, which led Udemy to its first profitable year and the $2.5 billion all-stock merger. The Quiet Exit The Coursera-Udemy merger was completed on May 11, 2026. Coursera even released a completion 8-K once it was done. Sarrazin,

Some companies are exploring entirely new markets: from hardware sales to TikTok e-commerce.

This afternoon, Coursera reports its first quarterly earnings since the Udemy deal closed. Yesterday, it announced a $100 million investment in LearnVector, a new AI learning company founded by Andrew Ng. LearnVector’s domain was registered exactly one month ago and somehow it’s worth $300M? It’s a single page website with five open roles in Mountain View, and a promise of a first product in early 2027. Its founder is the co-founder of Coursera and the chairman of its board. If my reading of t

Update (April 2026): On April 9, shareholders of both companies voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger — 99.4%% at Coursera, 99.9%% at Udemy. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. I also dug into the 300-page merger prospectus and found that Coursera approached Udemy three times over two years before getting a yes, and that Pluralsight’s owner made a competing cash offer. Read the full merger history. TL;DR Coursera is acquiring Udemy in an all-stock deal worth ~$1.8 b