Devs’ choice of online training providers narrowed a little this week, as Linux Academy was swallowed by A Cloud Guru, and developer community cum tutorial site Scotch.io has been subsumed by dev-focused hoster Digital Ocean.

A Cloud Guru said its acquisition of Linux Academy, for an undisclosed sum, created the “largest and most effective cloud computing training platform in the world”.

“By bringing together the all-skills level A Cloud Guru offering and the more advanced Linux Academy training programs, the combined content library will represent the world’s largest catalog of hands-on training for cloud computing (AWS, Azure & Google Cloud), DevOps, containers, security, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.”

A Cloud Guru CEO Sam Kroonenburg will lead the combined organization, while Linux Academy CEO Anthony James “will serve in an advisory capacity”. 

According to Linux Academy’s website, “Support and service for all Linux Academy content and products is continuing uninterrupted, and your primary point of contact remains the same.”

It added that over the coming year, “We will create a seamless learner’s journey across both platforms, and our customers will benefit from having access to a combined catalogue of our courses, broad and deep hands-on learning, skill assessments, and the many educational features our platforms have to offer.”

Meanwhile, Scotch.io is “joining the DigitalOcean family”, the tips and tutorials site announced.

Chris Sevilleja, Cofounder of Scotch.io and (now) Community Manager at Digital Ocean, wrote in a blogpost that following the deal, “We are going to remove the paywall for all articles and tutorials on Scotch. Our content will be free to anyone.”

At the same time, he continued, “Joining the DigitalOcean Community will allow Scotch to continue the work that it’s been doing. More support for great authors, more quality content for developers, and a cleaner experience from learning to creating.”

The end of year flurry of M&A activity raises the question, is this all because companies and investors have money to burn? Or are they beginning to see a limit to just how far online training platforms can grow AND/OR they’re unwilling to hurl cash at the market. We looked to see if there was a training course that could help us answer that question, but so far, we haven’t found one.