It’s official: Microsoft has bought the collaborative software development platform GitHub for a total of 7,500 million dollars (just over 6,400 million euros) in shares and the purchase is expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2018. But you may be wondering what is the importance of this platform and why Microsoft will pay so much for her?
What is GitHub
GitHub is an open software repository and is extremely popular among developers globally, who on its platform can collaborate and share your work.
Most GitHub Users access this platform in its free versionsharing open code to the public who can use it, although it also has a paid option with which some companies and developers share code privately.
Although his name is not well known to netizens in general, at present more than 28 million developers collaborate on the platform, where are they housed over 85 million code repositories that are used by thousands of developers around the world, as explained by Microsoft.
But this agreement has caused many developers to show their discontent and in fact find themselves migrating to the rival GitLab serviceHowever, for both companies the acquisition could be very beneficial.
The benefits for GitHub
GitHub has raised in its 10 years of existence (almost 300 million euros) from its investors, and although it has managed to position itself at the epicenter among free software development platforms, you should still make a profit.
In fact, during the first six months in 2016, the company showed huge losses that . By allowing Microsoft to acquire it, GitHub will not have to turn to investors, who could at some point require significant changes both in the product model and in the commercial one.
Microsoft will position itself at the heart of open source development
Secondly, Microsoft could also make big profits. For example, you could link GitHub to your enterprise offering catalog, linking it with Visual Studio Professional or Enterprisethe integrated development environment for Windows operating systems with which developers can create web sites and applications.
For Microsoft, the acquisition could also be a great bet when strengthening your business in the cloud, which will now compete directly with the market leader: . Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform will especially benefit from GitHub tools where developers can create code in the cloud.
Time will tell where it will be after moving to Microsoft’s platform catalog: for now the tech giant that will commit “to be administrators of the GitHub community, which will maintain its spirit of putting the developer first, will operate independently and remain an open platform. We will always listen to developer feedback and invest in both fundamentals and new capabilities.”
Upon completion of the acquisition, GitHub will be led by CEO Nat Friedmanfounder of Xamarin, a software company that was also acquired by Microsoft, while the CEO and co-founder of GitHub, Chris Wanstrath will be a technician at Microsoft.
Image: from GitHub
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