I seriously don't understand the deals being made in tech. Most of the makes no sense, not even retrospectively. I get Microsoft buying Github, that was a part of their open source strategy and they've always put a high value on developers.
The way the present their numbers is pretty hard to understand, at least for me, did they lose $28million or make $28million in that same quarter? Either way that seems insanely low, if they're expected to be worth $8billion. The gap between profit and revenue seems to high.
There might be some potential for Gitlab complement your other business, in which case you may not see the lack of profit as that big of an issue. The problem is that if you can't make those $8billions back in future profit, then you're going to start making changes to the Gitlab offerings until they do become profitable.
That might be what the new CEO is suppose to do, pump up those numbers, and make it look like a sane investment.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/google-backed-software...
Given New Relic is a direct competitor, Bill Staples' background makes even more sense.