GitHub, Microsoft débourse 7,5 milliards de dollars

Plate-forme de développement GitHub

C’est désormais officiel, Microsoft vient d’annoncer avoir acquis la plate-forme de développement GitHub pour la modique somme de 7,5 milliards de dollars.

Après plusieurs jours de rumeurs, le géant du logiciel rend la chose officielle. Dans un communiqué de presse Microsoft annonce avoir acheté l’un des site Web les plus visité au monde, la plate-forme de développement de logiciels GitHub. Si tout se déroule comme prévu la transaction arrivera à son terme en fin d’année après le feu vert des autorités réglementaires.

GitHub est devenu en l’espace d’une dizaine années un service incontournable dans le monde de développement de logiciel. Il permet aux développeurs du monde entier de stocker et partager leur travail. Ceci peut se faire de manière privée ou publique. L’esprit collaboratif est très présent tout comme l’idée de l’Open Source.

GitHub est l’un des sites Web les plus visités au monde

La pertinence des outils mis à disposition explique un succès considérable. Il permet à cette plateforme de revendiquer 28 millions d’utilisateurs et surtout l’hébergement de 80 millions de projets. Leur nature n’a aucune importance. En clair il peut s’agir du développement d’applications mobiles, de logiciels PC, Mac ou Linux ou encore de la programmation Web.

Son modèle économique repose sur des abonnements mensuels sollicités uniquement dans la cadre de développements de codes qui ne seront pas rendus public en clair non « open source ».

A l’occasion de cette annonce Satya Nadella, l’actuel PDG de Microsoft a souligné

« Nous ferons de notre mieux pour donner les moyens à chaque développeur de concevoir, fabriquer, innover et résoudre les défis les plus pressants du monde »

Tout le monde ne perçoit pas cette acquisition comme une “bonne” chose. Chez les défenseurs de l’Open Source, il est difficile de trouver des points communs entre les objectifs lucratifs de Microsoft et le concept de GitHub. La plateforme repose sur une base de partage, de collaboration et du logiciel libre. Faut-il craindre que la vision de Microsoft dénature en profondeur tout ceci ?

Selon Satya Nadella, non

« Microsoft est une entreprise de développeurs avant tout et en joignant nos forces avec GitHub nous renforçons notre engagement pour la liberté des développeurs, l’ouverture et l’innovation »

L’annonce de cette acquisition

REDMOND, Wash. — June 4, 2018 — Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced it has reached an agreement to acquire GitHub, the world’s leading software development platform where more than 28 million developers learn, share and collaborate to create the future. Together, the two companies will empower developers to achieve more at every stage of the development lifecycle, accelerate enterprise use of GitHub, and bring Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences.

“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.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire 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.

GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. Developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects — and will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud and any device.

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman, founder of Xamarin and an open source veteran, 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, to work on strategic software initiatives.

“I’m extremely proud of what GitHub and our community have accomplished over the past decade, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. The future of software development is bright, and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality,” Wanstrath said. “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.”

Today, every company is becoming a software company and developers are at the center of digital transformation; they drive business processes and functions across organizations from customer service and HR to marketing and IT. And the choices these developers make will increasingly determine value creation and growth across every industry. GitHub is home for modern developers and the world’s most popular destination for open source projects and software innovation. The platform hosts a growing network of developers in nearly every country representing more than 1.5 million companies across healthcare, manufacturing, technology, financial services, retail and more.

Upon closing, Microsoft expects GitHub’s financials to be reported as part of the Intelligent Cloud segment. Microsoft expects the acquisition will be accretive to operating income in fiscal year 2020 on a non-GAAP basis, and to have minimal dilution of less than 1 percent to earnings per share in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 on a non-GAAP basis, based on the expected close time frame. Non-GAAP excludes expected impact of purchase accounting adjustments, as well as integration and transaction-related expenses. An incremental share buyback, beyond Microsoft’s recent historical quarterly pace, is expected to offset stock consideration paid within six months after closing. Microsoft will use a portion of the remaining ~$30 billion of its current share repurchase authorization for the purchase.

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

Jérôme Gianoli

Aime l'innovation, le hardware, la High Tech et le développement durable. Soucieux du respect de la vie privée.