The $7.5 billion Microsoft is paying for GitHub is just under 1 percent of Microsoft’s current market capitalization. In recent years, Microsoft’s valuation has also increased, making its stock even more potent as an acquisition currency. Take Salesforce, the cloud-software company that Microsoft reportedly targeted as an acquisition in spring 2015. Microsoft’s latest acquisition, of the online code repository GitHub, fits neatly into that vision: it could help the company build out large and powerful suites of A.I. The conglomerate could sell Baker Hughes, but such a deal may only raise $20 billion, Mr. Tusa writes.

Source: New York Times June 04, 2018 10:12 UTC