Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire the software development platform GitHub, a popular destination for open source projects and software innovation. The platform hosts a network of developers in nearly every country representing more than 1.5 million companies, in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, technology, financial services, and retail.
“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft in the company’s announcement of the deal. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.
According to Microsoft, GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. In addition, developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools, and operating systems of their choice for their projects and will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud, and any device.
Nat Friedman, Microsoft corporate vice president, will assume the role of GitHub CEO.
GitHub’s current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will become a Microsoft technical fellow, reporting to EVP Scott Guthrie, to work on strategic software initiatives.
Adding perspective to the acquisition, the Microsoft announcement stated that, today, every company is becoming a software company and developers are at the center of digital transformation. As a result, the choices that developers make will increasingly determine value creation and growth across every industry.
Upon closing, Microsoft said, it expects GitHub’s financials to be reported as part of the Intelligent Cloud segment.