It was reported over the weekend that Microsoft had been in discussions with GitHub about a possible acquisition. Another report claimed that the deal had been clinched and that an official announcement would be made on Monday. That report has turned out to be true as Microsoft today officially confirmed that it has acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion. The deal is worth more than what many had been expecting.
GitHub is the world’s leading software development platform serving more than 28 million developers. The platform is used by developers to host entire projects, code, documentation, and to learn from each other. Microsoft says that it will work with GitHub to provide more tools to developers and to “accelerate the enterprise use of GitHub.”
Microsoft has disclosed the terms of its deal with GitHub. It’s acquiring the company for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. The deal is subject to closing conditions and regulatory review. Microsoft expects to close the deal by the end of this calendar year.
The software giant reiterates that after the acquisition, GitHub will continue to maintain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently so that developers in all industries can have an open platform. Developers will also be able to continue to use the programming languages, tools, and operating systems of their choice for their projects. They will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud, and any device.
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman will be assuming the role of GitHub CEO while Chris Wanstrath, the current CEO of the company, will become a Microsoft technical fellow to work on strategic software initiatives.
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