Coursera announced an agreement to acquire Udemy, creating a combined online‑learning company valued at about $2.5 billion and projecting roughly $1.5 billion in annual revenue. The firms said the deal will cut an estimated $115 million in costs and boost capacity to deliver AI and upskilling content to enterprise and consumer customers. Coursera CEO Greg Hart and Udemy CEO Hugo Sarrazin positioned the tie‑up as a response to surging demand for generative AI skills: Coursera noted record enrollments in AI courses and a partnership embedding its content into OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while Udemy highlighted corporate demand for AI transformation training. For higher‑education leaders and continuing‑education units, the consolidation signals intensified competition from platforms that blend academic credentialing, corporate training, and AI tutors—pressuring institutions to clarify their value proposition in lifelong learning and employer partnerships.