5 ms·

Google was in the running to acquire GitHub, according to head of its cloud arm

65 points by antimora 8y ago

snug 8y ago
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.
- malvosenior 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    I agree, this is a very weird article with very little information, and the headline oversells it.
    - ChuckMcM 8y ago
      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.
  - ggggtez 8y ago
    If that's the implication it's pretty much just crazy talk. I mean, is the suggestion the company actually stopped all work for a period of months? Obviously not, so it seems like a huge non-sequitur.
- Nuzzerino 8y ago
  You can pretty much expect clickbait bordering on fake news from Bloomberg these days. There has been a pattern of it.
JaimeThompson 8y ago
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.
- nashashmi 8y ago
  Sting! Just like code.Google.Com
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  It's hard to believe now, but it wasn't a very long time ago that Google was doing some very, very strange things trying to push Google+ down everyone's throats, especially on YouTube. I really have no idea of what they would use GitHub for. With MS it's more or less clear: they will put ads of Azure, Visual Studio and other dev-related products on GitHub; with time, they'll also use their front page to announce their dev conferences and so on. Eventually, as Nat said, their aim is to "earn the trust" of open source devs, so that they perceive MS in a positive way (they already succeeded partially, as many comments on HN demonstrate). With Google, I have no idea what would happen. It could be anything, really.
  - gremlinsinc 8y ago
    I'm surprised Amazon wasn't in the running, do they have their own VCS/Git yet? VSTS has a git clone, so it's a little weird them buying github, I can see it for the community/open source promotions, etc... Amazon could've probably integrated it well with AWS. Honestly, this gave me a push to look at other options, and I'm liking gitlab more and more for the way it's organized, it's integration w/ devops like kubernetes (don't use yet, but someday I might lol), and I really like the way you can create groups, and organize projects under different groups. The free plan also has tons of bells and whistles, for a solo dev.
    - mattnewport 8y ago
      Microsoft is a heavy user of git internally (e.g. Windows is now developed in a git repo) and though they do also have their own source control as part of VSTS they've also had first class support for git there for a while too so it isn't really that surprising.
ursus_bonum 8y ago
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 8y ago
  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 8y ago
    Oh, you mean like 1) Skype: https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-office-closing-layoffs https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-off... 2) Nokia: cruelly killed-off for no particular reason.
chis 8y ago
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.
scottbomb 8y ago
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 8y ago
  > Wow, who writes that crap? Have you read your own comment?

65 points by antimora 8y ago

snug 8y ago

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.

malvosenior 8y ago
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 8y ago
  I agree, this is a very weird article with very little information, and the headline oversells it.
  - ChuckMcM 8y ago
    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.
- ggggtez 8y ago
  If that's the implication it's pretty much just crazy talk. I mean, is the suggestion the company actually stopped all work for a period of months? Obviously not, so it seems like a huge non-sequitur.
Nuzzerino 8y ago
You can pretty much expect clickbait bordering on fake news from Bloomberg these days. There has been a pattern of it.

JaimeThompson 8y ago

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.

nashashmi 8y ago
Sting! Just like code.Google.Com
dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
It's hard to believe now, but it wasn't a very long time ago that Google was doing some very, very strange things trying to push Google+ down everyone's throats, especially on YouTube. I really have no idea of what they would use GitHub for. With MS it's more or less clear: they will put ads of Azure, Visual Studio and other dev-related products on GitHub; with time, they'll also use their front page to announce their dev conferences and so on. Eventually, as Nat said, their aim is to "earn the trust" of open source devs, so that they perceive MS in a positive way (they already succeeded partially, as many comments on HN demonstrate). With Google, I have no idea what would happen. It could be anything, really.
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  I'm surprised Amazon wasn't in the running, do they have their own VCS/Git yet? VSTS has a git clone, so it's a little weird them buying github, I can see it for the community/open source promotions, etc... Amazon could've probably integrated it well with AWS. Honestly, this gave me a push to look at other options, and I'm liking gitlab more and more for the way it's organized, it's integration w/ devops like kubernetes (don't use yet, but someday I might lol), and I really like the way you can create groups, and organize projects under different groups. The free plan also has tons of bells and whistles, for a solo dev.
  - mattnewport 8y ago
    Microsoft is a heavy user of git internally (e.g. Windows is now developed in a git repo) and though they do also have their own source control as part of VSTS they've also had first class support for git there for a while too so it isn't really that surprising.

ursus_bonum 8y ago

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 8y ago
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 8y ago
  Oh, you mean like 1) Skype: https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-office-closing-layoffs https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/17/12951996/skype-london-off... 2) Nokia: cruelly killed-off for no particular reason.

chis 8y ago

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.

scottbomb 8y ago

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 8y ago
> Wow, who writes that crap? Have you read your own comment?