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Microsoft completes $7.5B acquisition of code hosting platform GitHub
As of today, GitHub is officially a Microsoft Corp. business.
GitHub Chief Executive Officer Nat Friedman (pictured, second from the left) shared the news in a blog post, exactly one week after the European Union approved the $7.5 billion transaction. Friedman took the opportunity to reiterate the commitments that Microsoft made in June when it first announced its intentions to acquire the code hosting platform.
“GitHub will operate independently as a community, platform, and business,” Friedman wrote. “This means that GitHub will retain its developer-first values, distinctive spirit, and open extensibility. We will always support developers in their choice of any language, license, tool, platform, or cloud.”
After the acquisition was announced, some users voiced concerns that Microsoft may change the policies and features that have made GitHub the industry’s main hub for hosting open-source projects. But the developer community as a whole seems to believe the platform is in good hands. The number of users on GitHub has grown from 28 million at the time of the acquisition to 31 million today, according to Friedman.
Looking ahead, the executive said Microsoft will initially focus on enhancing the platform’s interface. Friedman specified that one priority will be doubling down on Project Paper Cuts, an initiative that GitHub launched in August to streamline the user experience based on feedback from the community.
In the longer run, developers can expect new integrations with Microsoft products. CEO Satya Nadella (second from right) said in June that the company will use the acquisition to “bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences.”
As part of the effort, the technology giant will likely explore new ways to monetize the platform. GitHub already offers paid subscription plans and earlier this month introduced GitHub Actions, a service for automating development projects. Users can write workflows to handle actions such as publishing a piece of code or accepting new users to open-source projects.
Over on the organizational side, Friedman is set to start his first day as CEO on Monday. The position was previously held by GitHub co-founder Chris Wanstrath (far left) who will join Microsoft as a technical fellow.
Photo: Microsoft
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