Watch out Stage 2
Coursera brought university courses online, many free to audit. In 2025 it agreed to buy Udemy, its largest rival, which counts as buying up a competitor. Certificates and course access don’t lock you in, so one extraction criterion without lock-in. Stage 2.
- Since
- 2012
- Category
- Learning
- VC-backed
- Yes
- Public
- Since 2021 (NYSE: COUR)
- Website
- coursera.org
Why it’s rated 2
The criteria it meets, with sources · Method
- Alignment 0 of 3
- None
- Lock-in 0 of 4
- None
- Extraction 1 of 7
-
- E6 Self-dealing Dec 17, 2025
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result No extraction that meets the stage 3 test, and either some lock-in or no alignment criterion, so stage 2.
News signals
Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy
Dec 17, 2025
Coursera agrees to combine with Udemy in a $2.5 billion all-stock deal
Market consolidation