Udacity Lays Off 125 Employees

Online learning provider Udacity has laid off nearly a quarter of its staff members.

Sebastian Thrun, the company's co-founder, said in a written statement that Udacity made the “painful decision to part ways with 125 employees in the U.S. and Brazil” in order to “realign” the company’s focus.

VentureBeat reports that 70 staff members will be laid off in Brazil and Udacity is closing its São Paulo office. The remainder of the cuts will come from U.S.-based departments that work on course content creation.

Udacity plans to “increase investment in growth areas like enterprise and career development,” said Thrun. The company's board voted in favor of the reorganization last month, shortly after former CEO Vishal Makhijani stepped down.

The company earlier this year quietly eliminated a program to give Nanodegree Plus students their money back if they can’t find a job.