Why Microsoft paid $7.5 billion for GitHub (Nat Friedman)

Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub and co-founder of Xamarin, orchestrated Microsoft’s acquisition of the platform by identifying a fundamental shift where developers, rather than IT departments, drive software purchasing decisions. After joining Microsoft in 2016, Friedman convinced Satya Nadella that acquiring GitHub was essential to reclaiming relevance among a new generation of developers who lacked affinity for the brand. To neutralize intense skepticism from the open-source community post-acquisition, Friedman prioritized immediate, developer-centric results over corporate integration. On his first day as CEO, he initiated a "100 days of shipping" strategy, tasking the engineering team with fixing community-reported issues daily. This approach successfully bypassed internal "stage fright," established a rapid feedback loop, and demonstrated that GitHub would remain an independent, user-focused institution. By focusing on small, tangible improvements like fixing long-standing bugs, Friedman earned the trust of a wary developer base and revitalized the company’s shipping culture.