The online education sector is undergoing significant consolidation as Coursera and Udemy announce an all-stock deal valuing the combined entity at approximately $2.5 billion. This merger signifies a strategic move in the post-pandemic online learning landscape where growth has decelerated. Under the terms, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 Coursera shares for each Udemy share, valuing Udemy itself at around $930 million. The market reacted positively to the news, with Coursera's shares rising about 6% and Udemy's surging nearly 18% in premarket trading.

This alliance brings together two distinct models of online learning. Coursera is known for its collaborations with universities and institutions, offering accredited degrees and professional certificates. In contrast, Udemy operates as a marketplace where independent instructors provide courses directly to individuals and businesses. Both companies are betting that increased scale will be crucial for future success, particularly in the realm of enterprise learning. They anticipate that a unified platform will be better positioned to secure long-term corporate contracts and generate more stable subscription revenue, moving away from a reliance on one-off consumer course purchases, especially as companies prioritize retraining their workforce in areas like AI, data science, and software development.

However, this consolidation occurs amidst a cautious investor sentiment towards online education stocks. Concerns regarding pricing power, market competition, and the long-term profitability of AI-focused courses have led to struggles for these companies, with both Udemy and Coursera trading significantly below their post-IPO highs. Udemy's shares have fallen approximately 35% and Coursera's about 7% this year. The transaction is projected to conclude in the second half of the following year, contingent on regulatory and shareholder approvals.

In other significant tech news, the critical role of Cloudflare in maintaining internet stability was highlighted by several widespread outages in 2025. A Downdetector report identified AWS, PlayStation, and Cloudflare as major contributors to global outages, with Cloudflare's incidents having a uniquely broad impact. While Downdetector recorded 3.3 million outage reports for Cloudflare, compared to 17 million for AWS, Cloudflare's downtime on November 18 and December 5 silently disrupted essential services used by millions, including ChatGPT, Canva, Claude, and X. Even Downdetector itself was affected.

Cloudflare's co-founder and CEO, Matthew Prince, clarified that these incidents were not cyberattacks but rather stemmed from an internal configuration change. A feature file within its bot management system unexpectedly doubled in size, propagating across its global server network and triggering the outages. Cloudflare functions as a crucial middleman for a vast portion of the internet; it does not host most websites but instead optimizes their speed, defends against attacks, and routes traffic through its extensive network of data centers. Consequently, when Cloudflare experiences issues, numerous unrelated platforms become inaccessible to users, even if the underlying websites remain operational.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros Discovery has decisively rejected Paramount Skydance’s unsolicited $108.4 billion bid, emphasizing the board’s concerns regarding the proposal’s risks and insufficient financing. In a stern letter to shareholders, Warner Bros cited the lack of certainty surrounding Paramount's financial backing. Paramount had claimed its $30-per-share offer was fully guaranteed by the Ellison family, a claim Warner Bros disputed, noting that the equity support was tied to a revocable trust from Larry Ellison with capped liability, which the board deemed a 'gamble' rather than a secure backstop.

Warner Bros Discovery drew an unfavorable comparison between Paramount's offer and Netflix's existing merger agreement. Netflix’s $27.75-per-share deal was lauded for being fully binding, not requiring equity financing, and backed by robust debt commitments from a company with a market capitalization exceeding $400 billion and an investment-grade balance sheet. This contrast highlighted the lower risk profile and fewer complexities associated with the Netflix proposal. Conversely, Warner Bros portrayed Paramount as financially strained, anticipating that the combined entity would emerge with a substantial debt load, constrained free cash flow, and ambitious synergy plans that could lead to further job reductions in Hollywood. Concerns were also raised about the tight operational restrictions Paramount would impose during the lengthy approval process. After numerous bids, meetings, and months of negotiations, Warner Bros concluded that Paramount's offer remained 'illusory,' subject to amendment or withdrawal, unlike the firm Netflix deal. The message to shareholders underscored that the decision prioritized financial certainty over price alone.