Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub could be announced as soon as Monday (MSFT)

pulse

June 4, 2018 1:01 PM

A combination of Microsoft and GitHub would make a lot of sense from a product and customer perspective.

Microsoft and GitHub have agreed to an acquisition, according to a Bloomberg report.
The deal, which follows recent deal talks reported by Business Insider, could be announced as soon as Monday.
It's unclear what the price of the acquisition is, though GitHub was most recently valued at $2 billion.

Microsoft and GitHub, the popular developer-tools platform, have agreed to an acquisition in a deal that could be announced as soon as Monday, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

The report, citing anonymous sources, does not provide the price Microsoft will pay to acquire GitHub, which was most recently valued at $2 billion on the private markets in 2015.

Deal talks between the two companies were first reported by Business Insider on Friday. The two companies have explored a potential deal over the years; at one point last year, a $5 billion deal for GitHub was floated, multiple people told Business Insider. But things didn't get far or serious.

A combination of Microsoft and GitHub would make a lot of sense from a product and customer perspective, and it could provide stability for GitHub, which has found plans to monetize its popular products more challenging than expected and suffered a lot of turnover in its executive ranks.

The company has been searching for a permanent CEO for nine months, following the cofounder Chris Wanstrath's decision to step down from the top job in August.

According to the Bloomberg report, GitHub lost $66 million over three quarters in 2016 and remains in the red. GitHub was attracted to a deal with Microsoft in part because of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the report said.

Microsoft declined to comment. GitHub could not immediately be reached for comment.

More on the big Microsoft-GitHub deal:

Read Business Insider's report on the deal talks on BI Prime.

And BI's analysis of why a GitHub-Microsoft combination makes sense.

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