X
Tech

Microsoft finalizes its $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition

Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub has passed regulatory approval and is now official.
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub has received regulatory approval and is now official. Microsoft announced the completion of its $7.5 billion acquisition of the GitHub hosting and development service on October 26.

microsoftgithubacquisitionfinal.jpg
Credit: Microsoft

European Union regulators approved Microsoft's GitHub acquisition on October 19.

Microsoft announced intentions to buy GitHub on June 4, 2018. At that time, officials said Microsoft's CEO of Xamarin, Nat Friedman, would become CEO of the San Francisco-based development platform. GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath agreed to become a Microsoft Technical Fellow as part of the arrangement.

Reaction by developers to Microsoft becoming the steward of GitHub has been mixed. Some, noting changes happening at the company since Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, said they believed Microsoft would provide a good home for GitHub. Others have said they are still wary of Microsoft and are considering moving away from the platform once Microsoft takes it over.

Microsoft officials have said the company's intent is to keep GitHub platform- and language-independent.Microsoft officials have said they intend to treat the GitHub acquisition largely like it has acted with LinkedIn, meaning it will let it run mostly independently.

During a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) days after Microsoft announced its GitHub acquisition plans, Friedman said "We are not buying GitHub to turn it into Microsoft; we are buying GitHub because we believe in the importance of developers, and in GitHub's unique role in the developer community. Our goal is to help GitHub be better at being GitHub, and if anything, to help Microsoft be a little more like GitHub."

"We will start by focusing on the daily experience of using GitHub and will double down on our paper cuts project," said Friedman in a blog post announcing the acquisition's completion. "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."

On its Q1 FY19 earnings call on October 24, Microsoft officials had said they expected the GitHub acquisition to close shortly and were already including the impact of the deal, in terms of accounting and integration, into its outlook for the rest of FY 2019.

Editorial standards