Skillsoft to acquire Codecademy for $525 million

Skillsoft announced that it has agreed to acquire Codecademy, a US-based online learning platform for technical skills, for approximately $525 million in cash and stock. The consideration for the transaction is approximately 40% cash and 60% equity. 

Founded in 2011, New York-based Codecademy is a popular learning platform that provides high-demand technical skills to nearly 40 million registered users worldwide. It offers interactive courses and hands-on learning in 14 programming languages in many areas including application development, data science, cloud and cybersecurity.

The acquisition comes nearly a year after Codecademy raised a $40 million Series D.

“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.”

Boston-based Skillsoft software that provides customers with training and classes in leadership development, workplace harassment prevention, and courses to become systems engineers. Its library of 180,000 courses, books and videos is available in 29 languages.

“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 and  entrepreneurial team, led by founder Zach Sims, will join Skillsoft “with a focus on accelerating growth” in Skillsoft’s Technology & Developer Business.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022, subject to approval by Skillsoft shareholders, the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and the receipt of regulatory approvals.