What's going on?

On Monday, tech titan Microsoft announced its acquisition of GitHub � the popular open-source software hub � for $7.5 billion (tweet this).

What does this mean?

GitHub�s a tool that�s most familiar to software developers. It works a bit like file-sharing site Dropbox but allows its users (including big dogs like Apple and Google) to save and share software code instead. GitHub was valued at $2 billion back in 2015 and was considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO), but decided it�d rather buddy up with Microsoft.

Why should I care?

For markets: Microsoft�s stock booted up.

As the news hit, Microsoft�s stock moved up 1% (which, for a company worth $776 billion, is pretty big) as some investors praised the company�s return to its software programming roots (remember Windows, anyone?). Microsoft hopes the acquisition will bring it closer to the developer community � GitHub has some 27 million users working on improving 80 million sets of code on the platform, so that�s a start�

The bigger picture: It�s not always great to be bought by Microsoft.

Microsoft has a patchy history with acquisitions: its 2011 purchase of Skype saw it run up against tough competition and ultimately undergo a serious facelift in order to stay relevant. And it wrote down the value of its entire 2014 Nokia acquisition to zero just a year after buying it. Ouch. The jury�s still out on 2016�s $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn�

Microsoft�s used its own stock (which has surged about 40% in the last year) to pay for GitHub, so perhaps it�s learning to take a little less risk with its deals. With over 1,000 employees contributing to GitHub�s repository, Microsoft hopes it�s well positioned to steer the combined company into a profitable future (since GitHub�s currently making a loss).