Skillsoft To Acquire Codecademy For $525M

Skillsoft Corp SKIL has agreed to acquire Codecademy, an online learning platform for technical skills, for about $525 million in cash and stock.

• The consideration for the transaction is approximately 40% cash and 60% equity. 
• Codecademy, founded in 2011, is based in New York. It has 40 million registered learners worldwide and offers learning in 14 programming languages across multiple domains such as application development, data science, cloud, and cybersecurity.
• Codecademy is expected to report $47 million in bookings and $42 million in revenue for the calendar year ended December 31, 2021.
• Skillsoft expects the Codecademy deal to be accretive to gross margin immediately upon closing, which is expected to occur in the first half of 2022.
• Codecademy's team, led by founder Zach Sims, will join Skillsoft with a focus on accelerating growth in Technology & Developer Business
• Skillsoft has secured committed financing from Barclays and Citigroup in connection with the transaction. It held cash and equivalents of $83.4 million as of October 31, 2021.
• Outlook: Skillsoft reiterated its FY22 view provided on December 14, 2021, with bookings of $700 million - $720 million; adjusted revenue of $685 million - $700 million; and adjusted EBITDA of $165 million.
• Price Action: SKIL shares closed lower by 0.10% at $9.71 on Tuesday.