Microsoft pledges to keep GitHub independent in wake of $7.5B acquisition

by Quinten Dol
June 8, 2018
microsoft acquires github redmond headquarters
photo via shutterstock

In the third-largest deal in Microsoft history, the Redmond behemoth confirmed last week that it had agreed to acquire popular open source code-hosting service GitHub. At $7.5 billion, only its 2011 acquisition of Skype and 2016 deal to land LinkedIn have been bigger.

As part of the deal, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman, who founded development tool builder Xamarin, will replace Chris Wanstrath as GitHub CEO. Wanstrath will move into a role as a Microsoft Technical Fellow.

The deal gives Microsoft new access to GitHub’s user base of 28 million software developers, a throwback to its famous focus on “developers, developers, developers,” which helped the company gain ascendancy in the 1990s.

In a blog post published on June 4, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged the company’s bumpy history with open source development platforms like its old rival, Linux.

“Microsoft is all-in on open source,” Nadella wrote. “We have been on a journey with open source, and today we are active in the open source ecosystem… When it comes to our commitment to open source, judge us by the actions we have taken in the recent past, our actions today, and in the future.”

Leadership from both companies has been eager to address concerns about the continued independence of GitHub, or even the possibility of advertisements plastered across the platform.

“Microsoft is a developer-first company,” Nadella said in a statement. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement.”

In a blog post, Wanstrath assured the GitHub community that Microsoft’s values toward open source code matched his own.

“Their vision for the future closely matches our own,” he wrote. “We both believe GitHub needs to remain an open platform for all developers.

Later in the week, Reddit hosted an Ask Me Anything in which Friedman sought to assuage developer fears about Microsoft forcing GitHub users onto its own platforms. He expressed disappointment at reports that some developers were moving their code to other sharing platforms, but said he hoped they would return “once we’ve demonstrated our commitment to openness and made GitHub even better.”

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