Coding school Holberton today announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by African Leadership Group (ALG). The seven-year-old company, with physical schools across the globe in addition to its core online platform, will split in two. Holberton's technology platform will become part of ALG's existing ALX online learning platform and the existing 34 physical locations will get spun out to become a stand-alone business under current Holberton COO Florian Bucher.

As Holberton co-founder Julien Barbier told me, the pandemic obviously put a lot of pressure on the company, given its early focus on in-person education. As those locations shut down, Holberton quickly moved its curriculum online and last year, Holberton pivoted to mostly focus on SaaS and began offering a white-labeled online learning platform to others. Barbier, whose co-founder Sylvain Kalache left the company at the beginning of the pandemic, noted that a number of potential acquirers approached him last year, but he didn't think that they were a great fit and with plenty of money in the bank, there was no pressure to sell. ALG, however, seemed like the right kind of fit and while neither party disclosed the acquisition price, Barbier, who will join ALG together with most of the Holberton tech team, did say that he was "happy about the numbers."