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Microsoft started the week with some big news, as it made another valuable purchase. It turns out the tech giant has just bought one of the biggest platforms for software developers, GitHub. This platform is one of the most preferred places for developers to share their code, and Microsoft has just confirmed its acquisition for $7.5 billion.
GitHub is now owned by Microsoft
Microsoft has always supported developers and their creativity and freedom. Therefore, it thought it might encourage tech innovations by acquiring one of the biggest code-sharing platforms. Until now, GitHub had been an individual company but, for $7.5 billion, it will now be a part of Microsoft.
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, has just announced the purchase. It turns out the company has paid the money through stock, being the most expensive transaction performed since December 2016. Back then, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion.
GitHub has been around since 2008, when it appeared in San Francisco. The platform offered software developers the chance to create and then share instances of code in different coding languages. This way, they can show others what they have been working on, as well as get inspired from other pieces of code.
Microsoft promises it will keep the coding platform as free as before
However, not everyone saw the GitHub purchase as a good thing. So far, the code-sharing platform has been a free open-source code library that allowed its users to do whatever they wanted. Now, some users fear that Microsoft might force the developers to promote some of its products. However, the tech giant felt the need to assure everyone the platform would stay just as free as it was before.
Therefore, if you are a faithful GitHub user, you won’t have to worry. From now on, whenever you are working on a project, you will be free to use whatever coding language and tools you like, just like before. Also, you can share it with anyone, for any operating system.
Acquiring GitHub was the perfect strategy Microsoft could adopt. The company also used to own a code-sharing platform called CodePlex. However, it quickly understood who owned the supremacy, and knew there was no use starting a competition. Since the acquisition, Microsoft’s shares have increased, so it was the best thing they could have done.
We're thrilled to announce that we've entered into an acquisition agreement with @Microsoft! https://t.co/4DezuXTJfV pic.twitter.com/LUZxjXFVVw
— GitHub (@github) June 4, 2018
Image source: Flickr
