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Microsoft Is Said to Have Agreed to Acquire Coding Site GitHub (bloomberg.com)

Bloomberg reports:
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. GitHub preferred selling the company to going public and chose Microsoft partially because it was impressed by Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Terms of the agreement weren't known on Sunday. GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in 2015.

GitHub is an essential tool for coders. Many corporations, including Microsoft and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, use GitHub to store their corporate code and to collaborate. It's also a social network of sorts for developers. While GitHub's losses have been significant -- it lost $66 million over three quarters in 2016 -- it had revenue of $98 million in nine months of that year.

On Friday, it was reported that Microsoft was in talks with GitHub about an acquisition. Now it seems like it's actually happening.

Update: Our sister site, SourceForge, has weighed in. Here is a tool that will import your GitHub project to SourceForge.
Update #2: Already, we are seeing plenty of backlash over this news. One user has started a petition to stop Microsoft from buying GitHub.
Update #3: It's official. Microsoft has acquired GitHub for a whopping sum of $7.5B.

6 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Millions of repos suddenly cried out in terror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And were suddenly erased.

  2. Re:Defections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Let me put an image in your mind:

    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"
    "developers! Developers!! DEVELOPERS!!!"

  3. Re:dendad by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Funny

    Have they never heard "If it aint broke, don't fix it"?

    Microsoft believes in, "It it ain't broke, how are we supposed to make money on support contracts?"

  4. Re:Time to leave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know what they'll put in the usage terms with regard to what you are allowed to do with your project?

    You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

  5. Re:Go fuck yourself, SourceForge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    casings works at github. The mandatory company hormone treatment makes him bitchy.

  6. Re:SourceForge Isn't An Alternative by whipslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lol