As reported earlier, Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to acquire GitHub in a deal that will cost the tech giant $7.5bn in stock. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year.

Through the acquisition, the pair say that they will ‘empower developers’ at all stages of development, accelerate the use of GitHub at enterprise level, and introduce Microsoft’s developer tools and services to new audiences.

“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. “We recognise the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”

GitHub will continue to operate independently, and developers will still be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choosing.

Nat Friedman, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for developer services, will take up the role of GitHub CEO. Former CEO Chris Wanstrath, who stepped down back in August, will become a Microsoft technical fellow, working on ‘strategic software initiatives and reporting to Microsoft executive vice president Scott Guthrie.

“I’m extremely proud of what GitHub and our community have accomplished over the past decade, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead,” said Wanstrath. “The future of software development is bright, and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality. Their focus on developers lines up perfectly with our own, and their scale, tools and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable for developers everywhere.”