European Commission clears Microsoft to acquire GitHub

The European Commission has cleared the acquisition of GitHub by Microsoft. According to the EU body, there are no concerns that the takeover will distort competition, as there are plenty of other players.

In a communication, the Commission wrote that the permission was granted without further requirements. In addition to concluding that there are no competition risks, the Commission says that “there is no reason for Microsoft to undermine the open nature of GitHub.” The Commission substantiates this by stating that Microsoft does not have the necessary market power for this. Developers could turn to other platforms in such a case.

Microsoft announced in June that it would acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion and said the acquisition should be completed by the end of this year. It also said GitHub would continue to operate independently. After the announcement, it appeared that other companies were also interested in the software platform. For example, a Google executive confirmed that the search giant was interested. According to CNBC sources, Amazon and Atlassian were among the remaining companies.