Udemy
Online course marketplace absorbed into Coursera after May 2026 all-stock acquisition.
On the record
Checkpoint: First full combined Coursera-Udemy quarterly earnings report
The call
Udemy stopped trading as an independent company on May 11, 2026; what remains is an enterprise course catalog inside Coursera, facing AI substitution and Microsoft's reach, with layoffs and a brand sunset already underway.
Udemy was an online learning platform where people paid for courses, but it was acquired by a larger company called Coursera in May 2026 for roughly $930 million, down from a $3.25 billion valuation six years earlier. The company is hard to replace because it has thousands of business customers locked into contracts and keeps 93% of them year after year, but this advantage is eroding fast: artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can now answer basic learning questions for free, Microsoft and Google are bundling their own training into products people already use, and Udemy's own growth has nearly stopped at 4% per year. The one thing that could turn things around is if Coursera can prove it is keeping customers happy after merging the two companies and cutting costs, but the plan to eventually erase the Udemy brand suggests leadership itself doubts the turnaround will work.
Why
01
AI pressure: ChatGPT and Claude style chatbots. Udemy's own leaders say roughly 40% of AI-chatbot queries are educational, pulling learners away from generic tutorial courses. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Microsoft (LinkedIn Learning). LinkedIn Learning rides Microsoft's distribution and Viva bundling, a reach the newly merged Udemy-Coursera entity cannot match. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. 18,000 enterprise contracts with SSO and LMS integrations that make switching costly, even as renewal rates soften.
What would change this call
Coursera reports combined-entity NDR and Udemy Business ARR in Q3/Q4 2026 earnings. Shows whether enterprise customer contraction is worsening post-merger.
Udemy brand naming disappears from marketplace or app store listings. Confirms brand sunset accelerating as CEO signaled.
Coursera announces further layoffs or misses/hits the $115M synergy target within 24 months. Shows whether integration is cutting into Udemy's team and capacity.
Udemy brand naming disappears from marketplace or app store listings. Confirms brand sunset accelerating as CEO signaled.
Coursera announces further layoffs or misses/hits the $115M synergy target within 24 months. Shows whether integration is cutting into Udemy's team and capacity.
Key numbers
- Udemy Business NDR fell to 93% overall
- Udemy Business ARR growth slowed to 4%
- Deal valued Udemy at $930M-$950M, down from $3.25B in 2020
Named risks
- Coursera CEO signaled Udemy brand will eventually be retired into single Coursera platform.
- Post-merger layoffs announced July 2026 with $8M-$11M severance charges, more cuts possible toward $115M synergy target.
- Udemy Business Net Dollar Retention at 93%, below 100%, indicating enterprise customer contraction.
- Generic consumer course content directly substitutable by AI chatbots per company's own admission.
- Enterprise ARR growth flat at 4% in FY2025 despite competitive AI-feature rollout.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft (LinkedIn Learning) | losing to | Distribution via LinkedIn network and Viva integration cited as structural advantage, Dec 2025 |
| Google (Career Certificates, Grow with Google) | losing to | Subsidized certificate programs cited as adjacent competitive pressure, Dec 17 2025 |
| Amazon (AWS Skill Builder) | losing to | Cited as major adjacent upskilling player with distribution advantage, Dec 17 2025 |
| Pluralsight | gaining on | Pluralsight written off by Vista Equity Partners in 2024, cut headcount 17% same year |
| ChatGPT/Claude (frontier LLMs) | losing to | Udemy leadership says ~40% of AI-chatbot queries are educational, direct content substitution, Dec 11 2025 |
Questions people ask
- Is Udemy still an independent company?
- No. Udemy was acquired by Coursera in an all-stock merger that closed May 11, 2026, delisting Udemy stock (UDMY) from NASDAQ. The combined company trades as Coursera (NYSE: COUR), with Udemy continuing as a product brand inside Coursera's portfolio.
- Is Udemy profitable?
- Udemy reported its first-ever positive net income in 2025, posting $6.1M in profit across the first three quarters of FY2025 versus a $75.4M loss the prior year, per a December 17, 2025 report on the Coursera acquisition.
- Has Udemy had layoffs?
- Yes. Udemy cut 30% of its workforce in September 2024, and after Coursera's acquisition closed, Coursera announced further job cuts around July 6-7, 2026, expecting $8M to $11M in severance-related restructuring charges.
- Who owns Udemy now?
- Coursera, Inc. now owns Udemy after completing an all-stock acquisition on May 11, 2026, valued at roughly $930M to $950M for Udemy equity, about a third of Udemy's 2020 private valuation of $3.25 billion.
- Could AI replace Udemy's courses?
- Udemy's own leadership acknowledged in a December 11, 2025 company post that roughly 40% of general AI-chatbot queries are educational in nature, signaling that generic tutorial content on its consumer marketplace faces direct substitution risk from tools like ChatGPT and Claude.
- Is Udemy's biggest competitor LinkedIn Learning?
- LinkedIn Learning, owned by Microsoft, is a key rival cited for its distribution advantage through LinkedIn's professional network and Viva integration, competing alongside Google's Career Certificates and Amazon's AWS Skill Builder in workforce upskilling as of December 2025.
Timeline
- 2026-07-06Coursera announces post-merger layoffs, $8M-$11M in expected severance charges
- 2026-05-11Coursera completes acquisition of Udemy; UDMY delisted from NASDAQ
- 2026-04-09Shareholders of Coursera (99.4%) and Udemy (99.9%) approve merger
- 2026-02-05Udemy reports FY2025 revenue $789.8M, flat vs FY2024; NDRR 93%
- 2025-12-17Coursera announces all-stock acquisition of Udemy, ~$2.5B combined valuation
- 2025-12-11Udemy Front Row event highlights AI adoption, cites 40% of AI queries as educational
- 2025-08Udemy launches MCP server and reports first-ever positive net income
- 2025-06Udemy acquires AI image-generation tool Lummi
- 2024-09Udemy completes 30% workforce reduction
- 2021-10-29Udemy IPOs on NASDAQ under ticker UDMY
Revision history
24 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Coursera completes acquisition of Udemy (2026-05-11)
- Coursera to acquire Udemy to create $2.5B MOOC giant (2025-12-17)
- Udemy (2026-07-15)
- 'Bringing Coursera and Udemy together...' (2025-12-23)
- Coursera Plans Layoffs Following Udemy Acquisition (2026-07-06)
- Coursera to Combine with Udemy (2025-12-16)
- Udemy Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results (2026-02-05)
- Employee Count & Headcount Data (2026-06-29)
- Coursera begins job cuts after acquiring Udemy (2026-07-07)
- The Learning Revolution (2025-12-11)
- Students, Courses, Instructors & Revenue (2026-03-08)
- 4 strategies for setting marketplace take rates (2021-12-07)