The GitHub deal was a part of Microsoft’s broader hold of open source and the company’s efforts to attract software developers who in the past some years have moved towards its competitors
American tech giant Microsoft Corporation has said that it had made cash payments of $1.3 billion in connection to its taking over of world’s leading software development platform GitHub.
Microsoft Corp has completed the acquisition of coding hosting startup, which is used by the developers for keeping the track of changes in software code as they write programs, in a $7.5 billion deal that was termed at the time of acquisition as an all-stock deal.
However, in a filing last week, the American technology giant has said the transaction of $7.5 billion includes cash payments of $1.3 billion (1 billion pounds) in respect of vested stock awards and an indemnity escrow of GitHub.
The deal that began in June has been closed on October 25, the company said in the filing.
Part of Microsoft’s broader strategy
GitHub is a leading software development program that is used by developers for hosting and sharing code as they develop it, often using the platform to distribute open source software. The deal was a part of Microsoft’s broader hold of open source and the company’s efforts to attract software developers who in the past some years have moved towards its competitors such as Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc.
In the previous year, American software major has closed down CodePlex, its own competitor for GitHub. While shutting down the CodePlex, the company said that the GitHub was the dominant place for sharing open source software and that most of the projects had already been moved on the platform.
After completing the deal last month, Microsoft announced that Nat Friedman will take over as the CEO of GitHub. Friedman is the former Chief Executive Officer of Xamarin, which was acquired by the American major in 2016.
