https://www.classcentral.com/report/2u-edx-bankruptcy/
Not sure what is going on at Axim -- maybe they are doing more than this reporter knows about. Given their relative silence, though, they are exposed to reporting like this.
On all other fronts this piece reads to me as a fair narration of what has happened in recent years...
Thoughts?
@8yrp+1ujlatBS 100%. To loop them into the poor decisions of 2U is insane, considering they were on the opposite end of the deal. 2U is notorious for spending $$$$$$$$ of dollars to bring in consults and solve problems quick without generating any revenue.
Hats off to the folks smart enough to take advantagiode of their idiocracy.
The headline is d-mb - otherwise a great analysis. Harvard/MIT/Axim made out like bandits - bc 2u was d-mb enough to pay $800 million for edX (which was already a money loser). Ask 2u operations leaders whether they were consulted about the ability to operationalize overlapping systems to make the whole “flywheel” thing workable (before the acquisition). Ask 2u operations leaders about the capacity of the marketing team to be agile with ANYTHING even before the acquisition. The people who knew better were either a) not consulted (even at EVP level) or b) ignored/dismissed as “skeptics” to Chip’s sunshine and rainbows bs (that honestly I think he believed himself- as most true salesmen do)
A lot of this aligns with my experience at 2U, hired post acquisition on the edX side and laid off in January. The platform strategy and the entire thesis behind edX converting into degree leads was flawed from the beginning. "Don't let the skeptic win" was such a horrible core value and often used internally to squelch dissent.