2U will distribute its portfolio of online short courses, boot camps, and degrees to Guild Education's corporate clients, as an additional channel. A partnership between the two companies was announced this Tuesday. No further details were provided beyond the press release announcement. Guild's platform gives access to Fortune 1000 employers to different educational pathways, while Lanham, Maryland-based 2U powers and markets programs for 75 colleges. "The average college student takes on $29,000 in debt; Guild is focused on helping America's workforce access affordable education, in partnerships with employers," said Rachel Carlson, CEO of Guild Education. This company—which has raised $228.5 million in venture capital to date—claims that "employees going back to school with support from Guild are more than 2x as likely to have a role change or promotion than their colleagues." About 79 percent of CEOs worldwide cite their workforce skills gap as a top concern, according to PWC.
Udemy.com announced this Wednesday the appointment of a new President, Greg Brown. Brown [in the picture] most recently served as CEO of Reflektive, an employee performance platform. Prior to this company, he was the Senior Vice President of International Business at Blackhawk Network and held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at Achievers. This key hire comes at a growth state for Udemy, which accelerated with the pandemic. In 2020, Udemy reached a $3.25 billion valuation and Udemy for Business surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, according to its data. Udemy, the largest global marketplace for online learning, claims to reach over 35 million learners with 57,000 instructors teaching 130,000 courses in more than 65 languages.
MITx launched on edX.org an 11-week, free course for learners interested in solving the massive and persistent economic poverty in the world. The Challenges of Global Poverty is taught by two Nobel Prize instructors: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The course–part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy—challenges economics to provide solutions. The authors pose the following questions: "Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish, and short"? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?" In this free online course from MIT, explore the key questions and challenges posed by massive and persistent world poverty. “The Challenges of Global Poverty” starts on February 9th — enroll today! https://t.co/XAhgNfNPoI pic.twitter.com/Z9l5ejbfqm — MITx on edX (@MITxonedX) December 30, 2020
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is launching this month in collaboration with edX its first MicroBachelors programs: Business Analytics Foundations and Data Management with Python and SQL. The edX's MicroBachelor standalone credential will allow learners to apply for transfer credit toward an SNHU associate or bachelor's degree program. Offered at $498 per course, the classes are worth up to six credits each. The two MicroBachelors courses are open for enrollment on edX and start on February 26. "Through the new SNHUx programs, learners will be able to study at their own pace, obtain workforce-relevant skills, and apply credits when they enroll at SNHU – creating an even more affordable pathway to an associate or bachelor’s degree," stated in a press-release Paul LeBlanc, President and CEO, SNHU. "With SNHU, we will further the edX mission to increase access to education worldwide," said Anant Agarwal, edX Founder, and CEO. With the launch, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) becomes a partner in the edX Consortium. It will operate as SNHUx.
Toronto-based Docebo LMS (TSX: DCBO; Nasdaq: DCBO) announced on Friday the pricing of its marketed secondary public offering of common shares in the U.S. and Canada. It will be a price of $49.67 per share for proceeds of $100 million. The offering comprises 2,013,288 common shares. One of the sellers is its Founder and CEO, Italian entrepreneur Claudio Erba, with 150,996 shares [In the picture above]. If the offer is successful, he will receive $7.5 million of the proceeds. The other two shareholders are Intercap Equity Inc (1,811,920 shares) and Alessio Artuffo (50,332 shares). The offering is expected to close this week, on January 26. The selling shareholders have also granted the underwriters the option to purchase up to 301,993 additional common shares, representing in the aggregate 15% of the total number of common shares to be sold. Last year, Docebo showed explosive growth in the stock of 387%, from the pricing of $10.30 per share to $67.77 on January 22. In 2020, it attracted big customers such as Uber, Walmart, and AWS. For fiscal 2021, its revenue is expected to grow 44.7%. Currently, its market value is $2.23 billion—similar to Instructure's Canvas LMS, which was taken off the market last year. The Motley Fool recommended yesterday the DCBO stock to buy in 2021, along with two other technology companies (Kinaxis and Lightspeed POS).
