Microsoft has bought GitHub, a hosting service for software projects popular among developers who share the source code of their programs on this platform and make it downloadable by users. A sort of "social network" for developers that the Redmond giant has valued at 7,5 billion dollars in shares.
Satya Nardella, number one of Microsoft explained through a note that by joining forces with GitHub, "we strengthen our commitment to developers for freedom, openness and innovation". GitHib will operate independently "to provide an open platform for all developers across all industries," Microsoft said.
Enthused the founder of the acquired company, Chris Wanstrath, according to which "the future of software development is bright". For him, Microsoft's focus on developers "aligns perfectly with ours, and its size, tools, and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable to developers everywhere."
On the other hand, the developers who use the platform to compare and improve their software, correcting any bugs and adding new functions, are very worried. In fact, many analysts fear that the company founded by Bill Gates could use GitHub to try to understand which projects are the most popular and most successful, in order to launch its own version.
Not very widespread among non-experts, GitHub represents a real point of reference for programmers from all over the world, so much so that it has 27 million software developers working on about 80 million projects. In a 2015 fundraiser, GitHub was valued at $2 billion.
Microsoft chairman Nat Friedman is expected to become chief executive officer of GitHub following the acquisition.
Microsoft specified that GitHub's financial results will appear in the "intelligent cloud" segment. In general, the US giant, thanks to this transaction, expects an increase in pro forma earnings per share as early as fiscal 2020 and a dilution of "less than 1%" in adjusted earnings per share in 2019 and 2020 The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
