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Cloud skills development platform A Cloud Guru (ACG) has been acquired by US leader in technology workforce development Pluralsight, in a deal described as "one of Australia's biggest" for the tech space.
Pluralsight, based in Silicon Slopes, Utah and worth more than $3 billion, will bring Melbourne-based ACG into the fold later this year, upskilling the company's edtech expertise.
While the sum paid for ACG remains under wraps, the Australian Financial Review reports the deal is one of the "largest ever" for an Australian tech company.
Founded in 2015 by two brothers from Perth, Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg, ACG is driven by a straightforward mission to 'teach the world to cloud'.
What began as a single cloud certification course has expanded into a rich content library and hands-on labs covering Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms.
The company raised a whopping $46 million in 2019 to accelerate hiring in Australia, expand its content library and build out site features.
Later that year the edtech acquired its largest competitor Linux Academy for an undisclosed sum, giving it access to the world's largest cloud computing training library.
Pluralsight, a technology workforce development company, hopes that by combining the power of ACG's leading certification courses, hands-on labs and sandboxes, exams and quizzes with its own existing library, the joint organisation will be positioned to meet market demand for cloud skill development.
"Technology is the number one differentiator for all businesses and the technology skills of your team is what determines success or failure. Nowhere is that more apparent than with cloud technologies," co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight Aaron Skonnard said.
"To meet the needs of our customers and best support their cloud transformations, we are determined to deliver the most comprehensive solution for driving cloud maturity at scale.
"With the acquisition of A Cloud Guru, we can now provide an all-in-one solution to accelerate the cloud skill development journey for large enterprise customers and individual learners."
ACG co-founder and CEO Sam Kroonenburg said he was excited to embark on a "shared mission" with new owner Pluralsight.
"ACG and Pluralsight were founded to solve the same problemclosing the technology skills gap by democratizing access to technical education," Kroonenburg said.
"Within our shared missions, we've taken different but complementary approaches. Both approaches have proven to resonate strongly with customers who want depth and breadth in tech education.
"I am excited by the next phase of our mission in which, together, we will build the next-generation platform for hands-on learning across all of technology."
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