The $7.5 billion deal that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella 'sealed' in 20 minutes

Earlier this year, Satya Nadella completed 10 years as Microsoft CEO. Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO in February 2014. Soon after taking over the helm, Nadella is said to have rapidly overhauled the almost 40-year-old company. Nadella is reported to have "pushed Microsoft to embrace cloud computing and open-source software that customers could freely adapt to." Nadella introduced a wave of open-source technologies, supercharging Microsoft’s cloud business.Over the years, under Nadella's leadership Microsoft has doubled its market share in cloud computing, cementing its role as the No. 2 behind Amazon, a position it continues to hold -- followed by search giant Google.
A recent report in New York Times talked about various deals that the company has made under CEO Nadella including the $7.5 billion acquisition of developers platform GitHub. Nadella reportedly 'sealed' the deal in 20 minutes.
"In 2018, he needed only 20 minutes to greenlight the acquisition of the world’s most important open-source company: GitHub, the site where developers shared and collaborated on software code," the report said.
Microsoft's $7.5 billion GitHub deal
After executives spent years debating whether to buy GitHub, Nat Friedman, a former Microsoft executive who worked for Nadella for five years, told New York Times that he pitched the idea to Nadella and other senior leaders at an annual executive retreat at the Suncadia Resort in the Cascade Mountains.
“Do we have the right to do this?” Nadella reportedly asked. "In other words: Would people still use GitHub if it was run by Microsoft?" The executives are said to have debated the question for 20 minutes, Friedman said.
"Then Nadella slapped his hand on the table and said, “We should do it.” Report adds that within weeks, Nadella agreed to buy GitHub for $7.5 billion in June 2018.
“We will accelerate enterprise developers’ use of GitHub, with our direct sales and partner channels and access to Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure and services,” Nadella had said on the acquisition.
Nadella was announced as the new CEO of Microsoft on 4 February 2014. He became the the third CEO in the company's history, following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.