Microsoft says it has reached an agreement to buy GitHub, the code repository company popular with many software developers, for $7.5bn in stock. The deal will add to Microsoft’s operating income in its fiscal year 2020, the company said in a statement on Monday. Microsoft expects the deal to close by the end of 2018. The shares were up 0.6% to $101.38 at 9.55am in New York. The acquisition provides a way forward for GitHub, which has been trying for nine months to find a new CEO and has yet to make a profit from its popular service that allows coders to share and collaborate on their work. It also helps Microsoft, which is increasingly relying on open-source software, to add programming tools and tie up with a company that has become a key part of the way Microsoft writes its own software. The acquisition reflects Microsoft’s "ongoing pivot to open-source software, seeking to further broaden its large and growing development community," said Richard Lane, an analyst at Moody’s. Git...

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