Is GitHub Microsoft’s next acquisition target? Microsoft officials have allegedly held talks to purchase the largest source code host in the world. The companies have spoken to each other before, but these most recent talks are purportedly more serious than past conversations.
Microsoft has toyed with the idea of purchasing GitHub before, but appeared unwilling to agree to the hefty price tag. GitHub reportedly has over 20 million users and 57 million repositories. The company was last valued at $2 billion USD in 2015, but could potentially sell for as much as $5 billion today.
Read more at https://hothardware.com/news/microsoft-in-talks-to-acquire-github-for-development-and-code-hosting-cloud-super-service#Rpzx8RFph6rXr58E.99Microsoft has also become more committed to open source and AI under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella and Raghu Ramakrishnan, CTO for Data. Ramakrishnan noted in an interview this past winter that, “We meet customers where they are, and in particular if you want Linux we’ll give you Linux; if you want MySQL, well we’ll give you MySQL; you want NoSQL well we’ll give you NoSQL– that means you need to be part of open source; open source by nature is a community thing.”
The corporation is now the largest contributor to open source and have cultivated a partnership with GitHub. Last month, it released the Microsoft App Center App to the GitHub marketplace. The corporation that once claimed that “Linux is cancer” even introduced a WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) this past March.
Microsoft’s possible acquisition of GitHub could also bolster its artificial intelligence efforts. According to GitHub, machine learning and deep learning projects are some of the most popular and fastest-growing offerings. Microsoft has made it no secret that it is fully committed to AI. AI and cloud computing were the focus of the most recent Build Developers Conference. The corporation also recently introduced AI platform Windows ML in the Window 10 Spring Creators Update.
Rumors of a potential purchase would have been unlikely six months ago. GitHub appeared committed to remaining independent in 2017. However, the company has experienced several issues over the last few months. GitHub founder and CEO Chris Wanstrath resigned from his position ten months ago, but the company has yet to replace him. The company also faced several discrimination accusations in 2017.
It is important to note that these purchase talks are still speculative — both Microsoft and GitHub have refused to comment. However, if these rumors prove true, Microsoft could majorly benefit from the machine learning and deep learning projects and community-building benefits that GitHub offers.
Source:-hothardware.
