Back in June, Microsoft announced that it was acquiring code-sharing repository GitHub for a considerable sum of $7.5 billion. Just a week ago, the transaction was also approved by the European Commission and deemed not anti-competitive. It is also rather interesting to note that Microsoft wasn"t the only company vying for GitHub"s acquisition, in fact, Google also admitted that it was in the running but was beaten by the Redmond giant.
Now, Microsoft has announced that it has officially completed its acquisition of GitHub.
The announcement was made by Microsoft Corporate Vice President and founder of Xamarin, Nat Friedman, who has also assumed the role of GitHub"s new CEO. Friedman once again emphasized that GitHub will continue to operate independently and maintain its "product philosophy", with developers being given first priority.
The executive went on to say that he will ensure that GitHub is secure, reliable, accessible to developers, and the ultimate hub for productive people. He stated that:
We will start by focusing on the daily experience of using GitHub and will double down on our paper cuts project. We will improve core scenarios like search, notifications, issues/projects, and our mobile experience. And of course we are excited to make GitHub Actions broadly available.
We believe in the power of communities—that we can all achieve more when we collaborate with others. [...] Our vision is to serve every developer on the planet, by being the best place to build software.
Since Microsoft announced that it was acquiring GitHub, there were reservations from some developers regarding how the code-sharing repository would operate under the Redmond giant"s leadership. However, apart from general improvements, it appears that Microsoft doesn"t intend to interfere too much in GitHub"s day-to-day operations just yet. It"ll be interesting to see if this behavior changes in the future.
What do you think of Microsoft"s acquisition of GitHub?