Shares of Udemy (NASDAQ: UDMY) lit up the tape today, not because of a quarterly beat or rosy guidance, but because a strategic merger deal just reshaped the company’s entire growth trajectory. 

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Shares jumped more than 30% after the market digested news that Coursera (NYSE: COUR) is acquiring Udemy in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $2.5 billion. 

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Under the terms of the agreement, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Coursera stock for every Udemy share they own, representing an attractive premium to recent trading levels and a material uplift from where UDMY has languished this year.

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But this isn’t just a ride-higher on merger arbitrage. Wall Street is increasingly framing this as a strategic consolidation in the education technology sector at the very moment AI-powered upskilling is exploding in demand. 

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By uniting Coursera’s deep partnerships with universities, enterprise training programs, and professional certificates with Udemy’s massive marketplace of independent instructors and practical skills content, the combined platform could achieve annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion once operations converge. 

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That matters because education tech stocks haven’t had many defining catalysts in recent years – until now. 

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Investors are betting that scale will finally unlock revenue durability and margin expansion that both companies struggled to achieve individually. And in a world where AI skills training, workforce transformation, and lifelong learning are exploding in enterprise spend, look at this deal not as an exit, but as a strategic re-entry into relevance and growth for Udemy shareholders.

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Of course, when it comes to education technology stocks, Udemy and Coursera aren’t the only players.  Others include:

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  • Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG)
  • Perdoceo Education Corporation (NASDAQ: PRDO)
  • Adtalem Global Education, Inc. (NYSE: ATGE)
  • Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAUR)
  • Like Stride, Inc. (NYSE: LRN)
  • New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU)
  • TAL Education Group (NYSE: TAL)

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There will likely be more consolidation in this space in 2026, so keep a close eye on these names.

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