The pandemic ushered in a “new normal” in online learning, but it culminated in layoffs and stock drops.

In October, Class Central wrote about CreativeLive shutting down on December 31, 2025. That article led to a series of events that actually saved the platform. Just two weeks before the deadline, on December 15, CourseHorse, an online marketplace of live classes, workshops, and experiences, acquired it for an undisclosed amount. The website is no longer closing at the end of the year. In 2021, Fiverr acquired it for $11 million. Four years later, in May 2025, the platform stopped accepting new

This is the first major move by Udemy’s new McKinsey-veteran CEO, who is prioritizing enterprise efficiency over the founder’s product vision.

On April 9, shareholders of both Coursera and Udemy voted to approve the merger. The votes weren’t close. At Coursera, 99.4% of votes were in favor of issuing new shares to complete the acquisition. At Udemy, 99.9% voted to adopt the merger agreement. Out of more than 228 million shares that voted across both companies, fewer than 500,000 voted against. Coursera shareholders also approved doubling the company’s authorized shares from 300 million to 600 million, which is needed to issue the sto