Google admits it lost out to Microsoft buying GitHub
A Google executive has admitted the search giant lost out on buying GitHub. Speaking at a Fortune Magazine event yesterday, Diane Greene Google's head of cloud made an interesting admission. "I wouldn't have minded buying them, but it's OK," said Greene, Bloomberg reports.
Previous rumors suggest Google was also trying to acquire GitHub, alongside Microsoft's bids. GitHub founder Chris Wanstrath reportedly chose Microsoft because of his relationship with CEO Satya Nadella. GitHub is a large code repository that has become very popular with developers and companies to host projects, documentation, and code. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and many other big tech companies use GitHub. There are 85 million repositories hosted on GitHub, and 28 million developers contribute to them.
Previously: Microsoft Holds Acquisition Talks with Github
Microsoft Agrees to Acquire GitHub... for $7.5 Billion [Updated]
Related Stories
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/06/01/microsoft--github-acquisition-talks-resume.html
Microsoft held talks in the past few weeks to acquire software developer platform GitHub, Business Insider reports.
One person familiar with the discussions between the companies told CNBC that they had been considering a joint marketing partnership valued around $35 million, and that those discussions had progressed to a possible investment or outright acquisition. It is unclear whether talks are still ongoing, but this person said that GitHub's price for a full acquisition was more than Microsoft currently wanted to pay.
GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in its last funding round 2015, but the price tag for an acquisition could be $5 billion or more, based on a price that was floated last year.
[Update 20180604 @ 14:00 UTC: Acquisition confirmed. Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion in stock. Coverage at Microsoft, Security Week, The Register, and The Verge. Also, see the Microsoft blog post. --martyb]
Microsoft has reportedly acquired GitHub
Microsoft has reportedly acquired GitHub, and could announce the deal as early as Monday. Bloomberg reports that the software giant has agreed to acquire GitHub, and that the company chose Microsoft partly because of CEO Satya Nadella. Business Insider first reported that Microsoft had been in talks with GitHub recently.
Time to move off GitHub?
Previously: Microsoft Holds Acquisition Talks with Github
An AC also submitted Bloomberg's article.
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Saturday June 30 2018, @07:31AM (15 children)
Relationships are important when you have ongoing business with someone - but when you are making a once-off sale the sum of your relationship extends to "can you afford my price?" and that's that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @08:10AM (14 children)
Perhaps he wants to continue running GitHub?? It's not only about money.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday June 30 2018, @08:38AM (13 children)
I suppose everyone has their price.
Personally, I preferred GitHub as being completely independent of the "big guys".
I find usually dealing with the "big guys" to be wrought with frustration over litigation and copyright claims, as once they grow beyond a "productive" stage, the big guys find ways of harnessing the creative juices of others to be far more economically lucrative than making their own. I've personally seen how once companies grow beyond a certain size, they invariably paralyze themselves with excessive management and procedures. No one has authority or permission to do anything. Complete executive lockdown.
I fear that Microsoft buying it will come with a burden of compliance to agreeing to whatever Corporate demands, or they will not be allowed to play. If they can no longer play in the Microsoft sandbox, they cannot even go off and build their own sandbox. Cause they don't hold the rights to build their own sandbox anymore.
I believe Google would have probably been a lot less restrictive, but chances are it will be monetized with ads and requirements to maintain Google accounts.
( Incidentally, do I have to give Google a credit card or other financial billing credentials to sign up for Google Play? I just got an Android phone, and I have to use Aptoide or other nonGoogle sources as I do not know which one is worse... putting my billing information out there, where just one mis-click on my phone will authorize charges that may be very difficult for me to stop, or possibly getting my phone infected with malware. I have already been hit with surprise in-app purchases, but so far could relax, knowing I have nothing set up for them to bill to... especially those monthly charge authorizations where there is no way for me to cancel once they get a click. Good grief, if AOL taught me anything, its NEVER give out charge card info for monthly charges. Once they have anything in place, they do anything they want, and all I can seem to do is cancel my credit card - then they go file against my credit report, and I am left with yet more problems. Best time to nip this problem is when they ask for the billing info in the first place. )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @09:31AM (8 children)
Nope. It's just a gmail account. They require dual authentication to open one nowadays but since you're opening it with your phone, answering the SMS satisfies that requirement. When you're done, log in to dashboard [google.com] from a desktop and turn off all the history tracking and the likes. The interface for doing that on the phone is messy and slow. I'm not sure if they automatically open a google+ account for you nowadays but you might want to opt out of that as well.
For automatic off-phone backups of contacts and images, you can operate an owncloud [owncloud.org] server at home or rent a cheap storage VM instance and run it on that. Alternatively, you can manually create all your contacts as local "Phone Contacts" and import/export them as a VCF file. You then either manually copy the file over USB, send it via mail, or use something like Syncthing [syncthing.net] for copying the file to your desktop or whatever.
Btw, both syncthing and owncloud clients are also hosted in fdroid along with firefox and chromium and many other useful apps. If you happen to run something like LineageOS, your system is kept up to date through LineageOS updates while your apps are updated through fdroid so there's no need for the Play services at all. It's a pretty popular setup in China actually...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday June 30 2018, @09:58AM (4 children)
Thanks....
I am new to this and feel like I am in a business full of doors that lock behind me as their business model to digest me once I enter their trap.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday June 30 2018, @10:15AM (3 children)
Watch out for the hall of mirrors. You just go round and round and round....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday June 30 2018, @10:43AM (1 child)
Been in that room. Too many times.
I believe the only way out is a little red "X" at the top right of the browser window.
Those things are really common around warez and porn sites.
I used to get hung up for hours in those things, thinking one of those links might lead me to that I was searching for.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 30 2018, @11:18AM
Not a Mac user, I see... (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 30 2018, @10:55AM
Yea... naaah [youtu.be]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @10:58AM (2 children)
Duel auth? You mean SMS? What a load of crock. They just want your phone number.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @02:15PM
Then get a prepaid SIM and a dual sim phone and auth with that. Plenty of those don't have monthly charges and accept calls and SMS for free. A variation of those is what security companies put in car trackers. If the car gets stolen they report the number to the police to track the "phone". In countries that the police aren't reliable there are services that have no monthly fee and let you charge the SIM from their web site so local security companies "fill" the SIM only when necessary and the device in the car SMSes the GPS coordinates.
Really there's all sorts of solutions out there for this sort of stuff. Pager services... Virtual number that redirects SMSs to you mail... Just look it up and get creative and you'd be able to even find anonymous ones. Though that kinda pointless considering the end result is using a mobile surveillance device.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday July 01 2018, @08:37PM
I'm pretty sure requiring a phone number is just a way to fight spam. It's the easiest/cheapest/most effective way to stop someone from creating millions of GMail accounts to send spam.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @11:12AM (1 child)
Never give a real credit card linked to anywhere charges can be arbitrarily applied.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @02:29PM
Excellent advice.
That is the main reason why I fear so much giving AsSeenOnTV (ASOTV) advertisers a credit card number.
The way they talk during the ad, I have no idea what the bottom line is going to be. Even if I record the TV on a VCR, they can always claim they flashed the disclaimer on the screen and my VCR did not have sufficient resolution, so its my fault for ordering the thing in the first place. I see stuff flash by and I certainly can't read it, but I am sure the text shown was telling me the speaking voice is not telling me the whole story. I note the voice never tells me how much... rather it just hocks up something like "just pay additional fee", or "free upgrade to express shipping" without telling me what the shipping fee is. All the screen will tell me is "Free upgrade to Express Shipping" in the same way as some bars have a comical sign: "FREE wifi. cold BEER!" Businesstalk. If you are not real careful, you see "Free Shipping", which is definitely not the case.
The way the head says it, I have no idea what it said. You can get a second unit. Just pay additional fee. We will ship it FREE!" Not "them", no they say "it". singular. And they never state how much additional fee. If I call, then they get my phone number. They can look it up in a database and probably get my address and credit card. God knows how much Experian leaked out. They now have it in telephone logs at the phone company that I called them. They can go ahead and ship me something I did not want if they want to, and leave me to try to return the thing. If I fuss, they can ding my credit report. I can't rebirth myself to get rid of a bad reputation, but a company can just rename themselves and repeat the misery they inflict on others ad nauseum. ( see what I did there? )
Biggest tip-off is the way they talk. Businesstalk. When you can't make out what they are saying, its a red flag... do not under any circumstances open any sort of communication to them. They have already tipped their hand... they are trying to pull a fast one. Best not let them do it to you.
(Score: 2) by dak664 on Saturday June 30 2018, @01:47PM
I have had no problems using a Visa gift card for such purposes. Often there is a $1 charge for verification, which is immediately refunded. After that you can run the balance down to zero and throw it away, or keep a few $ on it for future registrations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 30 2018, @03:54PM
I believe Google would have probably been a lot less restrictive
I doubt that. With MS the thing will go on for a long time. MS *will* try to make it work. Google seems to have a very laze-fair attitude towards its acquisitions. Google would just one day turn off the lights. Not much warning to anyone. MS will let it fester for years being useful. I have 0 doubt that google is a great place to work. But for a business and consumer POV it seems like a toy and nothing is took in a serious way. I enjoy many of their products. But I too have begun to move away from them. They just are too flaky.