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Accenture to Acquire Udacity

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Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#3

Post by candiddevmike »

yen223 wrote: post #2

This definitely wasn't in my 2024 bingo card. What does Accenture (or for that matter Udacity) have to gain from this acquisition?

Free training for their worldwide consultants? They probably spend a small fortune on in house training and development, makes sense to just acquire a company to do it for them (and have a platform to resell this IP through)

There could also be a trojan horse play to see what companies are training their employees on so as to offer competitive managed services around it.

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#4

Post by colmvp »

> As for Udacity, which was founded in 2011, it gave the usual kinds of statements a company makes when it gets acquired by a much larger organization like Accenture. That is, it believes that it can reach more people and help them acquire skills as part of the larger entity. That goes without saying, but there had been rumors earlier this year that the company was in talks with Indian edtech company Upgrad with an asking price of $80 million. Apparently that deal fell through and Accenture ended up buying them instead.

I wouldn't be shocked if it was low. I remember during the online learning boom of the mid-to-late 2010s I spent some time studying a variety of courses on Udacity but I felt the depth wasn't there.

And now there's a lot of different options for online learning specialized to particular industries that are superior to general platforms like Udacity. For example, when I was learning DL, I joined a local study group that went through fast.ai together.

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#6

Post by beoberha »

This is unfortunate to see. I remember when these alt-Ed startups were all the rage and there was a genuine belief that we were on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we learned.

Would love to hear some success stories if anyone has any!

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#7

Post by TuringNYC »

yen223 wrote: post #2

This definitely wasn't in my 2024 bingo card. What does Accenture (or for that matter Udacity) have to gain from this acquisition?

Accenture has >730,000 employees (https://newsroom.accenture.com/fact-sheet)

Much of their model is hiring entry-level to junior resources, upskill them, bill them out to clients at high mark-ups. Many parts of the workforce follow an up-or-out mentality and technical/functional upskilling is a key component to this, rather than just tenure.

Purchasing a platform to train that many people is probably a bargain compared to what they are probably doing now -- letting everyone choose their own platform and reimbursing the retail cost.

It is definitely a bargain compared to what they did when I worked there -- they owned and operated an entire University-like campus called "St. Charles Illinois" and flew people in from all over the world.

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#8

Post by TuringNYC »

beoberha wrote: post #6

This is unfortunate to see. I remember when these alt-Ed startups were all the rage and there was a genuine belief that we were on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we learned. Would love to hear some success stories if anyone has any!

>> there was a genuine belief that we were on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we learned

Why do you feel that belief has changed? I have used Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, OReilly Safari, and Udemy. All are great and each excels in different areas. Many have removed their all-access passes in the past year, but they all cost almost nothing compared to the alternatives. I could only have hoped for such awesome platforms existing when I was in high school or college.

For a sufficiently motivated learner, they are like rocket fuel for the mind. Their flexibility makes them great even for busy professionals.

Re: Accenture to Acquire Udacity

#9

Post by vsnf »

TuringNYC wrote: post #8
beoberha wrote: post #6

This is unfortunate to see. I remember when these alt-Ed startups were all the rage and there was a genuine belief that we were on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we learned. Would love to hear some success stories if anyone has any!

>> there was a genuine belief that we were on the cusp of a paradigm shift in how we learned Why do you feel that belief has changed? I have used Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, OReilly Safari, and Udemy. All are great and each excels in different areas. Many have removed their all-access passes in the past year, but they all cost almost nothing compared to the alternatives. I could only have hoped for such awesome…

They may be good resources but the energy in the air during that time was that they could challenge universities. It is clear with passed time that they didn't, and will not.
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