Microsoft Agrees To Acquire GitHub For $7.5 Billion

[Guest]

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approval, and Microsoft said that GitHub will continue to operate independently.

Microsoft Agrees To Acquire GitHub For $7.5 Billion : Read more

 

[Neuspeed]

Microsoft is gonna acquire GitHub? This can't be good.. >_<

 

[therealduckofdeath]

Microsoft is already a top contributor at GitHub, which I guess is a little ironic considering all of their competitors are always beating their chest about how open source woke they are compared to Microsoft.
I doubt Microsoft will make drastic changes to how the community works.

 

[Ilya__]

I agree with you THEREALDUCKOFDEATH. I can't see how MS or whoever else can change the fact that I can share my code publicly. As long as I can commit my code for free I will keep using it, and I don't see that changing. They know that there are so many free Git alternative implementations out there already.

 

[BryanFRitt]

Why buy if "nothing will change"? Some things got to be worth $7.5 billion.

 

[Ilya__]

Hard to guess. But, if I must, I'd say they will probably offer their cloud services on the platform, sort of promote its Azure offerings. I can see "If you pay for Private Repos, you can now get $100 credit for MS Azure!" That sort of thing.

 

[redgarl]

"Microsoft and GitHub were both quick to assure the platform's users that nothing will change in the near term as a result of this acquisition."

Notice the NEAR... it is just a matter of time before MS do MS stuff.

 

[DXRick]

The Borg will assimilate GitHub into its Hive.

 

[mrmez]

Yeah, gotta be some way of making money off that, whether it's ads, tiered pricing or better access to data mining. Given W10, I'd say the latter.

 

[bit_user]

Most of the developers are planning to switch to either Gitlab or Bitbucket.

I was going to point out the recent parade of high-profile projects moving from github to gitlab. I wonder if they had any sense this was coming.

Github appears to be a strategic fit for Microsoft. But isn’t the purchase price too high?

That was my first thought... but now I'm starting to think about all of the IP they can now access. For one thing, they can mine data about millions of programmers, how they collaborate, who's most prolific, who writes the best code, etc. and can sell access to this data to employers and recruiters.

Another possible revenue stream would be to offer legal services to open source projects to sue companies infringing their license terms. If they pair this with a Black Duck-like ability to detect infringing code, they have a potential gold mine on their hands.

 

[mihen]

Now all GitHub developments automatically creates a Windows Universal App if the developer ever decides they wish to support the platform. Only way Microsoft can make it easier for Developers to develop on their platform.

 

[Ilya__]

Yeah, gotta be some way of making money off that, whether it's ads, tiered pricing or better access to data mining. Given W10, I'd say the latter.

MS doesn't make too much money on ads/data-mining so I don't think that is the path they will take, but there is for sure a way they can benefit from this acquisition.

One way is by offering their cloud platform services inside Github. By making it way-too-easy to use Azure cloud services straight from GitHub, they are probably hoping people will start using their services more. Maybe they will even offer free credits for new signup-ees. The user-base of Github is massive so I'm sure some people will give Azure a try.