GitHub Battles Outages, Hacks, and Talent Drain at Microsoft

Microsoft

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GitHub is struggling to maintain its position inside Microsoft while dealing with repeated service disruptions, security breaches, and an exodus of key personnel.

When the software giant revealed its $7.5 billion purchase of GitHub back in 2018, many developers expressed unease over Microsoft gaining control of the popular code-hosting service. Almost eight years on, the platform is confronting a wave of major downtime events, the public disclosure of a remote code execution flaw, and the compromise of its internal repositories after an employee installed a “poisoned” VS Code extension.

Conversations with both present and past GitHub staff portray an organization hampered by weak direction and intensifying rivalry. Much of the present difficulty stems from events last summer, when then-CEO Thomas Dohmke stepped down. His exit prompted a major reorganization because Microsoft chose not to name a successor. Instead, the remaining members of GitHub’s executive group began reporting straight to the company’s CoreAI division.

Staff members, who still call themselves Hubbers, have found the shift challenging after years of operating with considerable autonomy. Jay Parikh, previously Meta’s head of engineering, now runs the CoreAI group; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought him on board last year to accelerate the firm’s artificial-intelligence efforts. According to insiders, Parikh is unpopular among Microsoft workers and was the one who decided against installing a new CEO for GitHub.

Dohmke’s departure has been followed by a steady loss of talent. Several former colleagues have joined him at Entire, the startup he founded to build a developer platform that will compete head-on with GitHub. Of the 30 people currently listed at Entire, at least 11 previously worked at GitHub.

Beyond the challenge posed by newcomers such as Entire, Parikh is said to be worried about threats from Cursor and Claude Code. Although GitHub Copilot once held an advantage in the race to deliver AI-assisted coding, it has lost ground to competitors during the past year or so. The Information reported this week that Parikh has told associates in private that GitHub “faces a critical threat.” Microsoft is also understood to have explored buying Cursor recently, and the company has begun cancelling many of its own Claude Code subscriptions so that internal developers can focus on strengthening GitHub Copilot.

Retaining skilled employees will be essential if Microsoft hopes to counter these rivals, yet executive changes and exits have continued. Long-time Microsoft leader Julia Liuson revealed last month that she was leaving the company after 34 years. GitHub had reported to her prior to the creation of CoreAI, and she had managed its revenue, engineering, and support functions once Dohmke was gone.

Jared Palmer arrived at GitHub only in October as senior vice president but is already moving to Xbox, where he will serve as VP of engineering and technical adviser to CEO Asha Sharma. Sharma has brought in several ex-CoreAI managers who appeared eager to escape Parikh’s oversight. Elizabeth Pemmerl, GitHub’s former chief revenue officer, tendered her resignation last month as well. Dan Stein, who had led software and digital platforms inside Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS), was named the new chief revenue officer for GitHub.