Talks on Microsoft’s plan to acquire software developer platform GitHub has intensified in the past few week, the Business Insider reported.

The acquisition talks turning serious mark a change of strategy as just six months ago GitHub appeared committed to staying independent, the report said on Friday citing people close to the companies.

The San Francisco, California-headquartered GitHub has more than 23 million individual users in more than 1.5 million organisations. Software developers use the tools of the privately-held company to store code, keep track of updates and discuss issues.

According to a CNBC report, the talks of acquisition progressed from a planned joint marketing partnership valued around $35 million. GitHub was last valued at $2 billion in its last funding round in 2015.

Based on a price that was floated last year, the report said that acquiring GitHub could cost Microsoft $5 billion or more – more than what Microsoft currently wanted to pay.