Microsoft buys GitHub for nearly $10bn

Microsoft has arranged to acquire software development platform GitHub for around US$7.5 billion ($9.82 billion) in shares as it seeks to tap in to new developer audiences.

The acquisition, which (subject to approvals) is expected to close this year, will see GitHub continue to operate independently from but with the support of Microsoft.

The two companies will work together to accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, bring Microsoft developer tools and services to new prospective customers and help further foster the open source ecosystem.

GitHub users will not be locked into Microsoft platforms — they will be able to continue to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects and to deploy their code to any operating system, cloud or devices.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman will take over from Chris Wanstrath as GitHub’s CEO. Friedman is an open source veteran and founder of the Xamarin mobile app development platform.

Wanstrath will meanwhile become a Microsoft technical fellow working on strategic software initiatives.

“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said.

“We recognise 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.”

Pictured, from left: Chris Wanstrath, Github CEO and co-founder; Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO; and Nat Friedman, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Developer Services. Courtesy Microsoft.

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