Yesterday, Skillsoft announced that they would be acquiring Codecademy for $525MM. Zach had a great writeup on the transaction and the next chapter for the company on the Codecademy blog. For those that don't realize the impact of the business, just head over to Hacker News and see some of the stories. My favorite is below.
"Codecademy actually turned my life around. I was in school and wasn't feeling challenged, but we had a web design class by a shaggy haired, bearded metalhead in his 50s who did it as a part time job, he started his career with punch cards, had seen just about everything. I was a depressed kid in a poor area and no parents, I didn't really have the attention span for learning to program the classic way so I loved what I learned from Codecademy, it was really engaging. I got an internship at the guy's old company and dropped out of school shortly after to work there full time, since then I've done so many things, moved to the US to work for Microsoft, built some really cool software, worked at all these places I couldn't even imagine 10 years ago. It's crazy to think that it all started in a small classroom going through Codecademy, I don't think anything else would've captured my interest in the way your website did. Thank you."
The deal will close the first half of 2022 and combines two best in class education software companies that can now serve both the B2C and B2B customer. The Codecademy relationship with Bowery Capital dates back to before the founding of the firm. I made an angel investment in the company in 2011 and shared offices with the Codecademy team at the AOL Ventures HQ in NYC. We transferred the investment into Bowery Capital when we started the firm in 2013. As a group we have stayed close to the Codecademy team and brought Zach on as a Venture Partner. While this marks the end of an era with Codecademy, we are excited for the future. Our relationship with the team will remain close as Zach continues to serve as a Venture Partner. Congratulations to Zach, Ryan, and the whole Codecademy team!
