
Google was in the running to acquire GitHub, according to head of its cloud arm - antimora
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-28/google-exec-says-microsoft-beat-search-giant-to-buy-github
======
snug
Sensationalist title

> “I wouldn’t have minded buying them, but it’s OK,” Greene said at a Fortune
> Magazine event in San Francisco on Wednesday.

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malvosenior
The whole article is really weird. It has the quote about it being "OK" that
MS bought Github, followed by a non-sequitur article about Google employees
protesting military contracts.

I don't see a connection between the two but I suppose the author is implying
that Google didn't buy Github because it was distracted with its own internal
turmoil around the protests?

~~~
stingraycharles
I agree, this is a very weird article with very little information, and the
headline oversells it.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Perhaps the only story here is that Google would have (or may have) bid on
Github as well as Microsoft. But that isn't more than a headline so the the
editor said "It needs to be 500 words or it isn't a story" and the reporter
just added in bits until they hit the word threshold.

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JaimeThompson
Google buying them would have been amazing, for about 2 years until Google
closed them for not having enough users or they added ads to everything.

~~~
devereaux
I am personally grateful to Microsoft for 1) saving github, because I love
github 2) reducing the amount of private information that will go into Google
database, because I fear Google.

Years ago, Google was about do no evil and Microsoft was the evil empire. It's
funny how we've gone full 180.

~~~
shmerl
And you think trusting MS is a better idea?

~~~
ravenstine
One's an advertising company and the other is a software company. One is not
seen as being reliable and ruthless in shutting down companies to harvest
talent, whereas the other has a record of long-term support for its own
products and appears to be putting forth a good faith effort in supporting
FOSS.

I choose the latter of two evils, which is Microsoft. MS isn't stupid, and
they know that futzing with Github would mean generations of developers never
trusting them with anything again. That's not to say that Microsoft won't do
the wrong thing, but a lot of people see them as less likely to do the wrong
thing than Google, and I happen to agree with them.

EDIT: My first statement is oversimplistic. What I meant by that is Google is
mostly interested in advertising and selling data, but Microsoft's business
isn't build around advertising(i.e. Bing Ads doesn't appear to be critical to
Microsoft's success). Granted, Microsoft is known for selling "data", but I
don't see how much of that they would gain from GitHub.

~~~
bb88
> MS isn't stupid, and they know that futzing with Github would mean
> generations of developers never trusting them with anything again.

Have you forgotten about how Microsoft destroyed Nokia? MS bought Nokia in
2014, and then sold it in 2016 for pennies on the dollar for what it paid in
2014 [1] [2]. Meanwhile MS completely wiped out Nokia's brand and technology
to push Windows Mobile down everyone's throat.

[1] [https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/nokia-phones-are-back-
after-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/nokia-phones-are-back-after-
microsoft-sells-mobile-assets-for-350-million-to-foxconn-hmd.html)

[2] 5 pennies on the dollar to be exact.

~~~
ravenstine
I'm not saying it never happens. Although Nokia doesn't surprise me because
nobody has cared about Nokia for some time now. Microsoft was basically
beating a dead horse. Yeah, they could have resurrected it, but Microsoft had
less to lose by destroying Nokia than it does by destroying Github. (although
this is really my gut talking without solid figures)

~~~
bb88
> Yeah, they could have resurrected it, but Microsoft had less to lose by
> destroying Nokia than it does by destroying Github.

I'm not sure that's true, since MS has already lost the developer space. Nokia
was a play for revenue because MS's investment in Windows phone was in the
billions already when MS bought Nokia, and that was back when people still
actually liked Windows Phone.

It's possible that MS could have built a github clone, and that wouldn't have
cost them $7.5B to build, but what MS really bought here is the brand, and the
good will that comes with it. If github goes down the tubes, it will be like
hotmail / nokia... etc.

~~~
TomMarius
> MS has already lost the developer space

What? There are many companies of 10 thousand employees and more that are
built from the ground up on Microsoft developer products and services.

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chis
This gives some perspective. Google buying GitHub would’ve been a tragedy. In
fact, I can’t think of a single megacorporation I’d rather have running GitHub
than Microsoft in 2018.

Still a shame they couldn’t stay independent though.

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ursus_bonum
Google would have stepped on Octocat's neck and blown its pretty little head
off.

Microsoft will either low-key torture it to death or leave it alone. Who's to
say?

~~~
outside2344
The new model at Microsoft is to run these big acquisitions as separate
companies with a lot of autonomy. I suspect Github will do very well from
here.

~~~
hotdog97
Oh, you mean like

1) Skype: [https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-
off...](https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-office-
closing-layoffs)

2) Nokia: cruelly killed-off for no particular reason.

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scottbomb
Wow, who writes that crap? Grammatical errors left and right. Let me guess,
it's either a bot our a product of foreign outsourcing.

~~~
jeremiep
> Wow, who writes that crap?

Have you read your own comment?

