Microsoft is acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. Subject to customary closing conditions and completion of regulatory review, the acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year. Upon closing, GitHub will be part of the company’s Intelligent Cloud segment.

GitHub, founded in October 2007, lets developers save code and projects in the cloud. Repositories can be both private and public. It currently has more 85 million repositories, according to the company website; with developers from over 1.5 million companies. GitHub will continue to operate independently, assures Microsoft.

Microsoft vice president Nat Friedman, founder of Xamarin, will assume the role of GitHub CEO. GitHub’s current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will become a Microsoft technical fellow, reporting to executive vice president Scott Guthrie. Mr. Wanstrath will be working on ‘strategic software initiatives’, says Microsoft. “Their focus on developers lines up perfectly with our own, and their scale, tools and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable for developers everywhere,” said Mr. Wanstrath in a statement, talking about the acquisition.

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

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is acting as legal advisor to Microsoft. Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to GitHub, while Fenwick & West is acting as its legal advisor.

Blog post by GitHub: https://blog.github.com/2018-06-04-github-microsoft/

Blog post by Microsoft: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/06/04/microsoft-github-empowering-developers/

[Image courtesy: Microsoft]