Microsoft is reportedly talking about buying GitHub

ronjor · Jun 1, 2018

Chloe Aiello @chlobo_ilo

Microsoft recently held talks to acquire software developer platform GitHub.
The talks have come amid GitHub's struggle to replace CEO and founder Chris Wanstrath, who stepped down 10 months ago.
GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in 2015, but the price tag for an acquisition could be $5 billion or more.
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FanJ · Jun 1, 2018

Interesting, after MS closed CodePlex.
See thread from April 2017: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/codeplex-going-to-shut-down.393097/
From a quote in that older thread from https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/03/31/shutting-down-codeplex/

03/31/2017 by Brian Harry MS

Almost 11 years after we created CodePlex, it’s time to say goodbye. We launched CodePlex in 2006 because we, like others in the industry, saw a need for a great place to share software. Over the years, we’ve seen a lot of amazing options come and go but at this point, GitHub is the de facto place for open source sharing and most open source projects have migrated there.
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emmjay · Jun 2, 2018

I hope this does not happen. They have to resist.

Open source devoured by a proprietary entity with an aggressive and anti-user attitude is going to be disastrous. The only reason MS wants Github is to shelve it.

reasonablePrivacy · Jun 2, 2018

emmjay said: ↑

I hope this does not happen. They have to resist.

Open source devoured by a proprietary entity with an aggressive and anti-user attitude is going to be disastrous. The only reason MS wants Github is to shelve it.
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I agree. Microsoft just wants to use modified "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy again.

hawki · Jun 3, 2018

"Microsoft Is Said to Have Agreed to Acquire Coding Site GitHub

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire GitHub Inc., the code repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter..."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-to-have-agreed-to-acquire-coding-site-github

:-(

guest · Jun 4, 2018

GitLab Sees Huge Traffic Spike After News of Microsoft Buying GitHub
June 4, 2018
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-spike-after-news-of-microsoft-buying-github/

According to Grafana, GitLab's statistics portal, thousands of projects and code repositories are being imported every hour. These numbers are only expected to grow as Monday comes around and most developers get back to work.

The number one fear expressed by companies and developers is that by buying GitHub Microsoft now gets full access to the millions of private projects that companies are currently hosting through GitHub's premium service.
Microsoft-GitHub deal to be announced today
Rumors of Microsoft looking to buy GitHub started popping up online on Friday. On Sunday, citing internal sources, Bloomberg reported that the deal was already done, and set to be announced on Monday.
GitHub acquisition makes a lot of sense
Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO at Microsoft, the OS maker has been refocusing its efforts on strengthening its cloud-based services and having a larger presence on the open-source market.
While devs and companies may be panicking because Microsoft has a track record of buying products that it doesn't necessarily need and then lets them die, GitHub actually fits in Microsoft's vision for the future of its business, where cloud and development tools have a primary role.
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emmjay · Jun 4, 2018

Contributing developers from Red hat, Google and IBM may move their projects to other platforms before the ink dries on the MS contract. I would expect that once signed, Microsoft will own all the rights to their work - even though it is (currently) open source.

Existing contracts with the developers will probably be usurped with Microsoft T+Cs and that may cause a bit of discontent.

The Art of the Deal ...
Not all the developers will leave the platform. However, if MS violates the intent of open source (or redefines it for their own purposes), it will be a costly mistake. Developers will leave en masse. MS is a major contributor to Github so in essence they could end up spending $4b to control their own stuff.

guest · Jun 4, 2018

Confirmed! Microsoft is Buying GitHub for $5 Billion

https://itsfoss.com/microsoft-github/

reasonablePrivacy · Jun 4, 2018

I'm glad that I use Bitbucket as my Git repository. There are other alternatives such as GitLab, too.

ronjor · Jun 4, 2018

Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion

June 4, 2018 | Microsoft News Center
REDMOND, Wash. — June 4, 2018 — Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced it has reached an agreement to acquire GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform where more than 28 million developers learn, share and collaborate to create the future. Together, the two companies will empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences.
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guest · Jun 4, 2018

(The GitHub Blog) A bright future for GitHub
June 4, 2018
https://blog.github.com/2018-06-04-github-microsoft/

I am very excited to announce that Microsoft is acquiring GitHub and expect the agreement to close by the end of the year. While it will still take a few months to finalize, we wanted to share the news as soon as we were able.

When GitHub first launched ten years ago, I could have never imagined this headline. Git was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, and Microsoft was a very different company. Open source and business, people said at the time, mixed as well as oil and water.

I’m extremely proud of what GitHub and our community have accomplished over the past decade, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. The future of software development is bright and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality.
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Trooper · Jun 4, 2018

Not sure how I feel about this so blah.

Mrkvonic · Jun 4, 2018

Why does every announcement/marketing whatnot EVER start with "I'm very excited"?
Is this in the sales 101 book of rules or what?
Mrk

ronjor · Jun 4, 2018

Seven billion dollars might cause that.

Mrkvonic · Jun 4, 2018

Ah, good point. I should work on that part.
Mrk

emmjay · Jun 4, 2018

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in the US and EU. I assume the US will rubber stamp it. but the EU will be a bit more prickly.

guest · Jun 4, 2018

Everyone complaining about Microsoft buying GitHub needs to offer a better solution
GitHub needed a buyer, and there aren't too many options.
June 5, 2018
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...ying-github-needs-to-offer-a-better-solution/

And if not Microsoft, then who?
There's a handful of reasonable candidates with pockets deep enough to buy GitHub. Aside from Microsoft, companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, IBM, and Oracle all likely offer the right combination of "technology" and "money" to handle such a purchase.
Best fit
But Microsoft's product fit is arguably the more natural. Google's internal version-control system is a proprietary, in-house system called Piper. It is very scalable and has many interesting features, and nobody but Google can use them. Microsoft, in contrast, is migrating much of its development to Git. The company has had to modify Git to handle the scale it needs, but it is working with the Git developers to get these modifications accepted into the main Git codebase, with the intent being that, eventually, stock-standard Git will do everything the company needs. Microsoft and GitHub have also collaborated to bring support for these extensions to GitHub and non-Windows platforms.
[...] Microsoft has the sales channels, it has the vested interest in making Git's (and hence, GitHub's) enterprise support better, and it has the wide developer audience. Critics of this deal shouldn't be upset; they should be glad that GitHub has found the best possible new home.
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guest · Jun 5, 2018

13,000 Projects Ditched GitHub for GitLab Monday Morning
Gitlab told Motherboard that the company gained 50,000 new projects in the lead up to Microsoft's announcement that it acquired Github.
June 4, 2018
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/...ects-ditched-github-for-gitlab-monday-morning

“Within the past seven days, we have imported nearly 50,000 projects,” Sijbrandij told me in an email. “We’ve scaled up the servers for GitLab.com three times already.”

Although 50,000 projects being transferred to GitLab is nothing to bat an eye at, it’s still a relatively small portion of the roughly 80 million projects hosted on GitHub.

What’s less certain is how Microsoft will address projects on GitHub that directly undermine its own services, such as this emulator for running Xbox games on Windows computers. There’s also projects on GitHub that can be used to directly harm others, such as DeepFakes, which allows users to plaster others’ faces on the bodies of porn stars. It’s hard to believe that Microsoft would continue to allow these sorts of projects to exist on GitHub [...]

On the other hand, for those that are committed to independent software in an increasingly centralized internet environment, GitLab provides a worthy competitor to Microsoft’s latest acquisition.
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ronjor · Jun 5, 2018

GitHub was also talking to Google about a deal, but went with Microsoft instead

Alex Sherman | Jordan Novet
GitHub agreed to sell to Microsoft on Monday for $7.5 billion, but was also talking to Google about a deal in recent weeks.
GitHub founder Chris Wanstrath chose Microsoft because of his relationship with CEO Satya Nadella.
Microsoft paid 25 times revenue for GitHub, or $300 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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guest · Jun 8, 2018

Microsoft’s GitHub acquisition celebrated by Linux Foundation
Microsoft heads to Reddit to calm developer nerves
June 8, 2018
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/8/17441096/microsoft-github-acquisition-reaction-linux-foundation

Nat Friedman, Microsoft’s future GitHub CEO (once the deal closes) took to Reddit yesterday to answer questions on the company’s plans.

“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,” explains Friedman. “Our goal is to help GitHub be better at being GitHub, and if anything, to help Microsoft be a little more like GitHub.”

Friedman also addressed reports that rival GitLab has seen a 10x increase in the number of developers moving their repositories to the service since the GitHub acquisition news broke.
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Rasheed187 · Jun 9, 2018

What are the best software projects on GitHub? I never really understood the hype.

Mrkvonic · Jun 9, 2018

I don't understand the hype either. A few years ago, everyone was hosting on SF, and now on GH.
It's as if the platform makes any difference regarding the quality of software.
Mrk

guest · Jun 26, 2018

GitLab's move off Azure to Google cloud totally unrelated to Microsoft's GitHub acquisition. Yep
Source shack says it's chasing reliability and Kubernetes tech
June 26, 2018
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/26/gitlab_moving_platform_to_google_cloud/

It is, of course, absolutely nothing to do with cosying up to developers still anguished following Microsoft's purchase of GitHub. Nope, absolutely not. Been planned for ages.

Of course, this conveniently skirts the fact that Microsoft's Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) went to general availability earlier in June, and one of the co-founders of the Kubernetes project, Brendan Burns, is, er, a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft.
GitLab also trumpeted its native integration with GKE earlier this year, so the move is logical even if the timing might raise an eyebrow.

Developers can look forward to what GitLab promises will be a smooth failover from Azure to Google's cloud on Saturday, 28 July.
Those who shifted their projects to GitLab in order to escape the imagined evils of Redmond may want to have a good hard think about the imminent prospect of their data being catapulted into Google's cloud.
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guest · Jun 28, 2018

Google admits it lost out to Microsoft buying GitHub
June 28, 2018
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/28/17512908/google-github-microsoft-acquisition-comments

A Google executive has admitted the search giant lost out on buying GitHub. Speaking at a Fortune Magazine event yesterday, Diane Greene Google’s head of cloud made an interesting admission. “I wouldn’t have minded buying them, but it’s OK,” said Greene, Bloomberg reports.

Greene also echoed similar concerns from developers about Microsoft buying GitHub and its future. “I really hope Microsoft can keep them totally neutral,” said Greene. Most developers seem to be waiting to see what will happen with Microsoft’s acquisition. The Vergeinterviewed several prominent developers on GitHub, and some would have had concerns even if Google had acquired the service.
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Mrkvonic · Jun 28, 2018

I don't see why people think Google is a better choice for this acquisition over Microsoft. A big corporation is a big corporation.
Mrk

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