home Apps, Softwares Microsoft could be acquiring GitHub and this is scary news to the coding industry

Microsoft could be acquiring GitHub and this is scary news to the coding industry

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Microsoft has reportedly acquired GitHub, and could announce the deal as early as Monday. GitHub is a large code repository that has become popular with developers and companies hosting their projects, documentation, and code. Apple, Amazon, Google, and many other big tech companies use GitHub.

Bloomberg reports that the software giant has agreed to acquire GitHub, and that the company chose Microsoft partly because of CEO Satya Nadella. Business Insider first reported that Microsoft had been in talks with GitHub recently.

Github Microsoft
Github Microsoft

Microsoft is currently the top contributor to the code repository, and has more than 1,000 employees actively pushing code to repositories on GitHub. Microsoft even hosts its own original Windows File Manager source code on GitHub. The service was last valued at $2 billion back in 2015, but it’s not clear exactly how much Microsoft has paid to acquire GitHub.

The new story follows similar reports late last week of discussions between the two parties. The deal certainly makes sense for Microsoft, as the software giant continues to actively court developers. As for GitHub, the company is said to have been “impressed” by Satya Nadella, who has actively courted coders and coding initiatives since taking the reins at the company, back in 2014.

“The opportunity for developers to have broad impact on all parts of society has never been greater,” Nadella told the crowd at his address during last year’s Build. “But with this opportunity comes enormous responsibility.”

Will GitHub die?

GitHub plays a vital role in the software development ecosystem. Not only do countless companies rely on it to build their own commercial software, it’s also the epicenter of the open source world, with 80 million repositories hosted on the site.

Another fear surrounding the GitHub acquisition is that it may lose its distinctive brand identity, and would be absorbed into Microsoft as just another business unit. Over its long history, several companies have met this fate — from Forethought in 1987, to Navision in 2002.

A quick scan through Twitter, and you’ll see people proclaiming the death of GitHub (and even open source software). Many are making bold promises to switch to rival services — like BitBucket or GitLab.

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James Barnley

I’m the editor of the DomainingAfrica. I write about internet and social media, focusing mainly on Domains. As a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ll get a lot of information on Domain Issues, ICANN, new gtld’s, Mobile technology and social media.

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