After a week of rumours and "no comments", Microsoft finally announced that it's bought GitHub -- the world's largest repository of independent code, with 28 million active developers -- for US $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to take GitHub to the next level with his company's cloud-focused software strategy.?This is Satya Nadella's second big acquisition, after the $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn which happened in 2016.
Reuters
GitHub is a large, open access software code library, extremely popular with developers and companies. For example, Apple, Amazon, Google and even Microsoft themselves host entire software projects, along with documentation, and code on GitHub.
GitHub boasts of over 85 million code repositories, with 28 million developers that regularly contribute to them. With a valuation of $2 billion in 2015, no wonder Microsoft is paying over seven billion dollars to buy GitHub.
The acquisition of GitHub is further reinforcement by Microsoft that it's investing in open source tools and technology -- earlier this year, Microsoft announced its support for the Linux kernel, which at one time was trying to compete with Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Microsoft CEO with GitHub CEO and Co-Founder
"We are committed to being stewards of the GitHub community, which will retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on the company blog. "We will always listen to developer feedback and invest in both fundamentals and new capabilities."
All isn't hunky dory with the Microsoft GitHub deal, though. Microsoft has a history of acquisitions that it has failed to optimize well -- look at Skype and Nokia, for instance. GitHub's competitor GitLab has seen its traffic spike over the past week or so, suggesting developers are nervous about GitHub joining forces with Microsoft as well.