The "fox" is buying the hen house??? Microsoft purchases Github

[BG405]

I'm not at all happy about this. Seems like corporate greed & we all know what often happens when companies swallow their competitors, a bit like BSB satellite TV in the UK (anyone remember that?), which Sky bought and then killed off, not saying MS will kill off GitHub (not straight away, anyway) but it isn't good to have ones non-MS choices taken away from us.

[BigEasy]

Remember! Nobody can buy something while something is not for sale. So, it is not killing. It is suicide.

[michael louwe]

Remember! Nobody can buy something while something is not for sale. So, it is not killing. It is suicide.

.

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish", also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate", is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_ ... extinguish

[BigEasy]

Let me repeat one more time. It's impossible to buy anything if nobody sells it. There is nothing to do with the MS strategy because selling was GitHub wishes.

[BigEasy]

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/mi ... -reaction/
Jim Zemlin (Executive Director at The Linux Foundation) told it is good thing.

I expect generally good things

Probably it is a hidden message that he will not refuse a some billions too. Just in case. Why not?

[michael louwe]

@ BigEasy, .......

Jim Zemlin (Executive Director at The Linux Foundation) told it is good thing..

.

At its Connect(); 2016 developer event in New York City today, Microsoft announced it is joining The Linux Foundation. And the company isn’t joining just to say it did: Microsoft is joining at the Platinum level, the highest level of membership, which costs $500,000 annually. John Gossman, architect on the Microsoft Azure team, will sit on the foundation’s Board of Directors and help underwrite projects.

https://venturebeat.com/2016/11/16/micr ... um-member/

= the rich "fox" entering the hen house.???

[thx-1138]

.................

===> the fox...
===> the hen...

[KBD47]

.................

===> the fox...
===> the hen...

Would be like the CEO of Coke drinking Pepsi.

[mike acker]

one might ponder over the business case for this...... MSFT wants to move its software products into the Cloud --- and Canonical is a major player in the Cloud business. The question then,.... is who is taking over who here ? IMHO the old MSFT APIs -- are not viable. By moving their products into the Cloud MSFT can also convert their products to POSX -- and -- as customers are pushed into adopting Cloud base software -- MSFT can solve the Windows security issue -- reduce maintenance costs -- and increase revenue -- pretty much in this one effort. Also, -- just "MHO" -- MSFT can't get to this soon enough: the public is fed up with computer hacking and as a result the government will address product liability. Hmmmmmm...... wait'll we see what that does,---

[BenTrabetere]

one might ponder over the business case for this....

I have tried to find a business angle that makes sense, and every one I consider falls apart when the $7.5B price is introduced. It is like a cabinetry shop buying a wooden work table kit and paying 3x the suggested selling price.

The business angles you mention are valid, but there is nothing so special about GitHub to justify the purchase price. What was stopping MS from making its own Git repository?

MSFT can solve the Windows security issue

You left out the smiley.

-- reduce maintenance costs -- and increase revenue -- pretty much in this one effort.

Any reduced maintenance costs are a rounding error when compared to the acquisition cost. As for "increase revenue" ... isn't that Step 2 in the Underpants Gnomes' Business Plan?

[KBD47]

Github had everything in place and MS was happy to take it over. Not sure it will make them much money, but it will give them control over a huge repository of software and connection with developers, and that latter part may be the real reason they were interested in controlling Github. I think in their minds they also thought--wrongly--this would give them an in with the opensource community. They did not count on the long memory of the open source and Linux community. But those with short memories will cuddle up with MS and I hope in the end they don't get burned.

[thx-1138]

......................
I have tried to find a business angle that makes sense, and every one I consider falls apart when the $7.5B price is introduced.
It is like a cabinetry shop buying a wooden work table kit and paying 3x the suggested selling price.
....................................................................
The business angles you mention are valid, but there is nothing so special about GitHub to justify the purchase price.
What was stopping MS from making its own Git repository?

1) http://www.businessinsider.com/google-y ... nge-2018-2
(...also keep in mind that according to most analysts Google was actually losing money from Youtube for many many yrs after it's purchase...
ie. sample article from 2015: http://www.businessinsider.com/youtube- ... ney-2015-2)

2) ...and what was stopping Google from making it's own Video streaming service back then?
...the fox is thinking of it in the long-term (like Google & Amazon above)...

[michael louwe]

@ thx-1138, .......

.

.
Equating the early days of Youtube and Amazon with today's Github and the buyouts does not really compute, eg their business models are different and many open-source developers have fled Github after the buyout by M$ ... https://monitor.gitlab.net/dashboard/db ... 30d&to=now (#movingtogitlab).

Intellectual Property(IP) is worth much more than its weight in gold. There is a lot of unrecognized, unregistered or unpatented IP in Github(eg in private accounts) which can be quietly or unnoticeably "converted" by M$ into her own patents.
....... Today, M$ is able to collect about US$1 billion per year in patent license fees from all the Android OEMs just by threatening a patent law-suit against the OEMs, ala Apple successfully suing Samsung in US Courts. Wonder why M$ did not sue Google for her Nexus and Pixel Android devices.?