What if I told you that one man’s frustration with an elevator breakdown led to the creation of the fastest-growing and most-beloved programming languages today? Seventeen years ago, Graydon Hoare’s ordinary evening turned pivotal when an out-of-order elevator at his apartment building forced him to trek up 21 stories. A Mozilla software engineer, Hoare’s frustration wasn’t just with the climb, but with the fact that the tools of his trade couldn’t even make an elevator that works without cras

Update (April 2026): On April 9, shareholders of both companies voted overwhelmingly to approve the merger — 99.4%% at Coursera, 99.9%% at Udemy. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026. I also dug into the 300-page merger prospectus and found that Coursera approached Udemy three times over two years before getting a yes, and that Pluralsight’s owner made a competing cash offer. Read the full merger history. TL;DR Coursera is acquiring Udemy in an all-stock deal worth ~$1.8 b

Coursera’s latest financial update under new CEO Greg Hart includes not just numbers, but a fundamental shift in how its degree business is presented.