Microsoft to Acquire Github

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-to-have-agreed-to-acquire-coding-site-github

Not sure how I feel about this, but my gut reaction is

 

Valued at $2 billion in 2015!
And profitless!
Microsoft definitely overpaid.

The acquisition provides a way forward for San Francisco-based GitHub, which has been trying for nine months to find a new CEO and has yet to make a profit from its popular service that allows coders to share and collaborate on their work.

 

I looked at that.
If they paid 2 Billion... I totally agree, they got jacked. However, the details of how much they paid has not yet been disclosed according to the article.

68M in revenue last year. Adobe trades at 16 times revenue and they make money. BOX trades at only 7 times, and they don't make money (yet).

There must be huge intrinsic value here that Microsoft feels can be unlocked if they are calling the shots. Else this thing is worth .5 Billion tops. I think there's intrinsic value.

 

Evenever MS buyouts good companies, they become mediocre boring companies....

 

Will Microsoft be able to claim any ownership to the code? In other words, now that they own the company, can they make a licensing claim to any or all of the source code residing on Github?

Example: I build a profitable innovation for blockchain in C++, upload to github, and apply the MIT license. Since Microsoft owns the company, can they make a legal ownership claim to said code, and apply a Microsoft license?

Perhaps repackage and sell, or even start charging fees?

 

That would be theft. Github offers a set of tools on top of git. That would be the same as saying Microsoft owns the rights to everything done with Word or Excel.

 

Actually that would not be theft, per se. The MIT license permits anyone to repackage and resell the MIT-licensed software, as long as the include the MIT license in the package.

 

Sure, but MS buying GitHub has no impact. Anyone can clone the repositories and repackage the code already.

 

I don't think that Microsoft bought GitHub to make money. The numbers do not support that.
I believe Microsoft's goal wants to keep better track what open source software is being developed, and having growing usage, so that Microsoft can incorporate similar features in their software, before the open source alternatives become so dominant that Microsoft cannot compete.