Microsoft to Acquire GitHub for $7.5 Billion

[Chino]

Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced it has reached an agreement to acquire GitHub, the world's leading software development platform where more than 28 million developers learn, share and collaborate to create the future. Together, the two companies will empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft's developer tools and services to new audiences.

"Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. "We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world's most pressing challenges."


Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.

GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. Developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects - and will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud and any device.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman, founder of Xamarin and an open source veteran, will assume the role of GitHub CEO. GitHub's current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will become a Microsoft technical fellow, reporting to Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie, to work on strategic software initiatives.

"I'm extremely proud of what GitHub and our community have accomplished over the past decade, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. The future of software development is bright, and I'm thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality," Wanstrath said. "Their focus on developers lines up perfectly with our own, and their scale, tools and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable for developers everywhere."

Today, every company is becoming a software company and developers are at the center of digital transformation; they drive business processes and functions across organizations from customer service and HR to marketing and IT. And the choices these developers make will increasingly determine value creation and growth across every industry. GitHub is home for modern developers and the world's most popular destination for open source projects and software innovation. The platform hosts a growing network of developers in nearly every country representing more than 1.5 million companies across healthcare, manufacturing, technology, financial services, retail and more.

Upon closing, Microsoft expects GitHub's financials to be reported as part of the Intelligent Cloud segment. Microsoft expects the acquisition will be accretive to operating income in fiscal year 2020 on a non-GAAP basis, and to have minimal dilution of less than 1 percent to earnings per share in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 on a non-GAAP basis, based on the expected close time frame. Non-GAAP excludes expected impact of purchase accounting adjustments, as well as integration and transaction-related expenses. An incremental share buyback, beyond Microsoft's recent historical quarterly pace, is expected to offset stock consideration paid within six months after closing. Microsoft will use a portion of the remaining ~$30 billion of its current share repurchase authorization for the purchase.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to Microsoft. Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to GitHub, while Fenwick & West LLP is acting as its legal advisor.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[btarunr]

It's both a bargain and a waste of $7.5 billion.

It's a bargain because Microsoft can now see the source code of every commit ever made to GitHub since its inception, open-source or closed-source, public or non-public, free software or proprietary software.

It's a waste of $7.5 billion because no software developer outside Microsoft with more than one neuron between their ears will ever touch GitHub again.

 

[R0H1T]

It's both a bargain and a waste of $7.5 billion.

It's a bargain because Microsoft can now see the source code of every commit ever made to GitHub since its inception, open-source or closed-source, public or non-public, free software or proprietary software.

It's a waste of $7.5 billion because no software developer outside Microsoft with more than one neuron between their ears will ever touch GitHub again.

I thought we addressed this in the other thread, what happened

 

[LemmingOverlord]

It's both a bargain and a waste of $7.5 billion.

It's a bargain because Microsoft can now see the source code of every commit ever made to GitHub since its inception, open-source or closed-source, public or non-public, free software or proprietary software.

It's a waste of $7.5 billion because no software developer outside Microsoft with more than one neuron between their ears will ever touch GitHub again.

Absolutely agree. There is nothing proprietary or exclusive that GitHub has to offer other than its userbase. If Microsoft comes in too aggressively, you'll see the users run off elsewhere (to whichever platform comes next), and the value plummet.

 

[AltCapwn]

Well, as I said in another post, they can use the GitHub source code to implement it in Office 365 as a "new" solution and merge it with other product for more added collaboration functionality with other Office product. Would be a paid version and keep the GitHub standard as open source.

Would be great to implement a security tho to protect the codes stocked in GitHub (like MEGA, a key that they can't even access). I guess not much people trust them and their business practices.

 

[bug]

It's both a bargain and a waste of $7.5 billion.

It's a bargain because Microsoft can now see the source code of every commit ever made to GitHub since its inception, open-source or closed-source, public or non-public, free software or proprietary software.

If you didn't have a problem with others seeing your code when you initially sent it to remote computers, why would you have a problem now?
And for those that did have a problem, there's on-premises GitHub Enterprise.

It's a waste of $7.5 billion because no software developer outside Microsoft with more than one neuron between their ears will ever touch GitHub again.

I will. Why wouldn't I?

Absolutely agree. There is nothing proprietary or exclusive that GitHub has to offer other than its userbase. If Microsoft comes in too aggressively, you'll see the users run off elsewhere (to whichever platform comes next), and the value plummet.

Between integrated wiki, issue tracker and code reviews and analytics, I'd say there's a lot of exclusive stuff GitHub has to offer. Not in the sense nobody has done it before, but in the sense GitHub is probably the most convenient one-stop shop solution for all the above.

 

[R-T-B]

I will. Why wouldn't I?

I'd think quite a few would. Not everyone is a Microsoft competitor.

 

[bug]

I'd think quite a few would. Not everyone is a Microsoft competitor.

I have no particular love for Microsoft, but why would I stop using GitHub just because they bought it? As long as they don't mess with it, it's still the same GitHub that's been helping us for years.

 

[xorbe]

I have no particular love for Microsoft, but why would I stop using GitHub just because they bought it? As long as they don't mess with it, it's still the same GitHub that's been helping us for years.

Because they will monetize or mess with it. It's what they do.

 

[bug]

Because they will monetize or mess with it. It's what they do.

Thoughtcrime?

 

[R0H1T]

Because they will monetize or mess with it. It's what they do.

You're making it sound as if it's a bad thing, unfairly hurting others (competitors?) is but not the first part.

 

[R-T-B]

Because they will monetize or mess with it. It's what they do.

Yep, I'm betting so. But I keep an open mind. If they really don't change much, I'll still use it.

 

[kastriot]

How many posts are made here using windows OS?

 

[TheGuruStud]

How many posts are made here using windows OS?

And how many hate it every day of it for decades? They've been liars, cheats, incompetent, and criminal from day 1. I hope Gates gets disemboweled....slowly.

Remember when games had a Linux ver on disc? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Then these dickless, mouth breathers bribed all the devs to use the garbage known as DX. You think it's fun being shackled to this crap?

Pirating the junk doesn't absolve them of their sins.

I've been around since 3.1 days and I don't have a short memory.

 

[Static~Charge]

Thoughtcrime?

Based on track record.

 

[SIGSEGV]

gogs, gitea, gitlab. haha. nothing to lose

 

[johnnyfiive]

And how many hate it every day of it for decades? They've been liars, cheats, incompetent, and criminal from day 1. I hope Gates gets disemboweled....slowly.

Remember when games had a Linux ver on disc? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Then these dickless, mouth breathers bribed all the devs to use the garbage known as DX. You think it's fun being shackled to this crap?

Pirating the junk doesn't absolve them of their sins.

I've been around since 3.1 days and I don't have a short memory.

Picking up on the subtle hints, I'm guessing you use a Unix/Linux variation as your primary operating system....

 

[bug]

gogs, gitea, gitlab. haha. nothing to lose

Yeah, I was just having this conversation with a colleague: worse case scenario, GitHub goes south. So what, git is not GitHub.
But again, between today and last week, GitHub is unchanged.

You're making it sound as if it's a bad thing, unfairly hurting others (competitors?) is but not the first part.

Also, like GitHub enterprise or paid accounts aren't already monetizing GitHub.
What can you do, some people see "free software", they think it grows on trees.

 

[Easo]

And how many hate it every day of it for decades? They've been liars, cheats, incompetent, and criminal from day 1. I hope Gates gets disemboweled....slowly.

Remember when games had a Linux ver on disc? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Then these dickless, mouth breathers bribed all the devs to use the garbage known as DX. You think it's fun being shackled to this crap?

Pirating the junk doesn't absolve them of their sins.

I've been around since 3.1 days and I don't have a short memory.

Are you on drugs? Disemboweled, really?

 

[fortiori]

It's both a bargain and a waste of $7.5 billion.

It's a bargain because Microsoft can now see the source code of every commit ever made to GitHub since its inception, open-source or closed-source, public or non-public, free software or proprietary software.

It's a waste of $7.5 billion because no software developer outside Microsoft with more than one neuron between their ears will ever touch GitHub again.

I'm pretty sure they already have it all anyway. Bing crawls that shit day and night so unfortunately your first point is null and void. As to your second point, eh, people are lazy. What more proof do you need?

 

[R-T-B]

How many posts are made here using windows OS?

Relevance?

Are you actually arguing that high market share somehow absolves them of any wrongs they may commit?

Or worse, that actually using their product makes one less qualified to complain about it?

 

[Prima.Vera]

Never heard of it...

 

[Fluffmeister]

Picking up on the subtle hints, I'm guessing you use a Unix/Linux variation as your primary operating system....

He apparently wishes he could kill himself rather than use Windows, hopefully this will push him over the edge.

 

[R-T-B]

Are you on drugs? Disemboweled, really?

Have a thanks. That's a pretty extreme comment and wish for a man who's actually done a lot of humanitarian good in his late life, rich or not.

Have a look.

He apparently wishes he could kill himself rather than use Windows, hopefully this will push him over the edge.

Can we quit with the death wishes, already? Sweet Jeebus.

Never heard of it...

Non-coder identified! Activate sneer routine!

 

[Slizzo]

And how many hate it every day of it for decades? They've been liars, cheats, incompetent, and criminal from day 1. I hope Gates gets disemboweled....slowly.

Remember when games had a Linux ver on disc? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Then these dickless, mouth breathers bribed all the devs to use the garbage known as DX. You think it's fun being shackled to this crap?

Pirating the junk doesn't absolve them of their sins.

I've been around since 3.1 days and I don't have a short memory.

Did you know that you can run a Linux VM within Windows using Microsoft's own tools now? Yeah, they're so devious and such assholes, these Microsoft guys.