EU clears Microsoft acquisition of GitHub

The European Union’s executive arm approved Microsoft’s pending $7.5 billion acquisition of GitHub on Friday, without any conditions.

The European Commission, which handles antitrust matters, said that it did not believe the software giant’s merger with the developer platform would cause antitrust issues.

{mosads}“The Commission found that the combination of Microsoft and GitHub’s activities on these markets would raise no competition concerns because the merged entity would continue to face significant competition from other players on both markets,” the group said in a statement.

The commission also said that it’s not concerned with Microsoft changing the open-source nature of GitHub because of the other options available to developers who use the code-sharing platform.

GitHub has already pledged to remain an open platform through the acquisition.

“GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos and will operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries,” it said in June after the merger was announced.

Microsoft has said that it expects the deal to be completed by the end of the year.