Docker is not for sale, insists a person close to the company

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docker solomon hykes

Docker

Docker Founder and CTO Solomon Hykes

Red-hot container startup Docker may be an attractive acquisition target for the likes of Microsoft, but there's a problem: Docker just isn't for sale, according to a person close to the matter.

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In a piece called "Why it makes sense for Microsoft to buy hot cloud startup Docker," Fortune postulated that Docker's technology, which lets enterprises box up their applications in a way that makes them easier to run on different kinds of server infrastructures, is a natural fit for Microsoft as it looks to attract developers to its Azure cloud.

Fortune reported that a source "in the venture capital industry" said that even if Docker were for sale, they wouldn't settle for less than $3.5 billion - a steep price, but not beyond the deep pockets of Microsoft.

But our source says flat out that Docker isn't for sale right now at any price.

Docker is big and growing, with the startup just recently closing a big $95 million Series D round that reportedly valued the company at around $1 billion.

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Microsoft, Google, and Amazon all support Docker on their cloud platforms, and the company claims that over 100,000 applications have been written to take advantage of Docker. The company even has a competitor in the form of CoreOS and its "appc" and "rkt" technologies, which have attracted support from Google, Red Hat, and VMware.

Next week is DockerCon, where the startup will present the latest updates to its technology and its latest business milestones to a crowd of developer enthusiasts, and we'll start to get a sense of why or why not it would make sense for Docker to sell.