Last valuation was $6 billion, they initially wanted to go public in November of 2020 but because of COVID they delayed it.
Doesn't sound cheap to me for a company who isn't profitable yet...
(Microsoft payed 7,5 billion for GitHub and I think we can all agree that GitLab isn't used as much so nearly the same valuations seems a bit high too me)
1. What would GitHub actually be valued at now? It's possible that all valuations have risen.
2. What does GitLab provide that GitHub doesn't? We went with it for our on-site Git hosting because of a lot of features, but also because we were able to engage their dev team and add support for some of our software to their product (above the non-free tier) so that we can do 2fa git-over-ssh using our own OTP software and API. Definitely couldn't get that with Gitlab.
On the other hand, GitLab suffers from "not the best" syndrome; GitHub is the best, and everyone everywhere supports it. GitLab is not the best, so support for it is extremely limited across the board. At this point, I'm surprised if we find software that natively supports Gitlab integration beyond just "pull a repository using a key or password".
this is why the companies in the last year before IPO go like crazy all the way in burning cash on customer acquisition and sales expansion. All the issues stemming from that are left to be dealt with by the post-IPO bug holders.
Timing of the CFO joining is interesting to me. From the S-1, Brian Robins joined GitLab in October 2020, so the desire to go public may have been there but an IPO is an enormous amount of work and I can imagine goes much better with an experienced CFO at the helm who has done it before. Therefore, "because of COVID" sounds like a contributing factor certainly, but may not be the whole story.
IIRC they had announced they weren't going to IPO in 2020 several months prior to that change. So I wouldn't assume they just didn't realize the work involved until October. Maybe they post-poned the IPO earlier in the year because they decided they wanted to find the right person for the job.
What's your source for the ARR comparison, out of interest? I'm of a different impression, and believe GitHub's ARR was actually quite a bit higher than GitLab at the point Microsoft executed that deal.
Do you think the GitHub or GitLab brand is stronger, today?
Doesn't sound cheap to me for a company who isn't profitable yet...
(Microsoft payed 7,5 billion for GitHub and I think we can all agree that GitLab isn't used as much so nearly the same valuations seems a bit high too me)