HomeMicrosoft Spends $7.5 Billion To Acquire GitHub

Microsoft Spends $7.5 Billion To Acquire GitHub

Last week, the European Union approved Microsoft’s quest to acquire GitHub. Nat Friedman, the CEO of GitHub declared today that GitHub is now officially owned by Microsoft, the Redmond giant, who spent $7.5 billion in stock to acquire the web-based hosting service.

The European Union regulators were said to have approved Microsoft’s GitHub acquisition on October 19, but Microsoft has come forward to announce that deal on the 26th of October.

Reports say however, that GitHub will continue to operate independently as a company. Friedman wrote today that a new beginning will start as GitHub will focus on the daily experience of using the company, and will double down on paper cuts projects.

According to him, other areas such as search, notifications, issues/projects, and mobile experience, which are seen as core scenarios will be improved. From now on, GitHub’s actions will be broadily available.

Back in the month of June 2018, this initial acquisition announcement was not welcomed by some. Developers saw it as preposterous, but that evidently had nothing to do with GitHub’s activities, as the company gained developers in the months since June 2018. Three million developers joined GitHub since then, making the number of developers cross the 31 million mark worldwide.

Friedman claims that this is what all the team members dream of and this is what raises excitement and a desire for staff to keep working.

Back in June, some developers had complained that since 2014, GitHub has changed in the ways it operated and that if Microsoft ever acquires GitHub, they will leave. In the coming months, we look forward to seeing how the new change in GitHub leadership will impact the platform and there will be opportunities for the new owners to continue making the platform a favorite place for developers, regardless of where they are in the world.

Writing about how he thinks things should turn out, Friedman wrote the following on Reddit – We are not purchasing GitHub to turn it into Microsoft; we are purchasing GitHub because we believe in the significance of developers and in GitHub’s unique role in the developer community. Our goal is to help GitHub and if anything, to help Microsoft be a little more like GitHub.

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Samuel Afolabi is a lazy tech-savvy that loves writing almost all tech-related kinds of stuff. He is the Editor-in-Chief of TechVaz. You can connect with him socially :)

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