Microsoft has announced its acquiring GitHub, a code repository that’s arguably the most popular on the web. The company made an agreement to spend $7.5 billion after GitHub was originally quoted back in 2015 to be worth $2 billion. While it isn’t clear how much the company’s worth now, it’s likely worth even more now that MS is taking control.
If you aren’t familiar with GitHub, don’t feel bad about yourself. Unless you’re a software developer or someone who likes to dig around the web a lot, chances are you simply haven’t crossed paths with it. Essentially, GitHub is a place where developers post and store their code for apps, games, websites, and more. It’s used by everyone from minor developers looking to make a name for themselves to massive companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and, yes, Microsoft.
In fact, the latter is the top contributor to GitHub. Microsoft earned that title back in 2016 and shows just how serious it is about the developer community and furthering technologies that are open source and ready to be worked on to better our everyday lives. And now that the company will own the repository, it’s clear GitHub will become a well-known and trusted place for developers to get work done.
“The era of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge is upon us,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a blog post. “Computing is becoming embedded in the world, with every part of our daily life and work and every aspect of our society and economy being transformed by digital technology.
“Developers are the builders of this new era, writing the world’s code. And GitHub is their home.”
According to Microsoft, CEO Nat Friedman will lead GitHub once the acquisition closes later this year. Both Friedman and GitHub CEO and co-founder Chris Wanstrath will be reporting to Microsoft Cloud + AI Group Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie. Further details regarding Microsoft’s plans for GitHub can be found here.
