Microsoft embraces collaboration in US$7.5 billion deal for GitHub
The software giant, once thought to shun open-source projects, takes another step towards shedding that reputation
Microsoft is paying US$7.5 billion for GitHub, a popular online hang-out for coders, as the software manufacturer further embraces the types of open-source projects it used to shun.
Microsoft’s chief executive officer, Satya Nadella, said the all-stock deal for GitHub would buy the “world’s leading software development platform”, a destination where developers around the world go to share and review each other’s code.
As Microsoft built its business on proprietary software including the Windows operating system, it came to be seen as an antagonist to the open-source philosophy of free software written by a collaborative community of developers.
The company has been working for years to shed that reputation, especially after Nadella took over in 2014.
“Developers will be at the centre of solving the world’s most pressing challenges,” Nadella said in a blog post on Monday. “However, the real power comes when every developer can create together, collaborate, share code and build on each other’s work.”