Dropbox edging towards an IPO
The cloud-based storage company could be looking to follow in Snapchat's footsteps
By Alexandra Simon-Lewis
Dropbox, the cloud-sharing business initially funded by seed accelerator Y Combinator, is reportedly looking into entering the public market. According to Reuters, the company is looking into hiring underwriters to prepare for an initial public offering - a proposal that would make it the largest US business since Snapchat to go public.
Dropbox knows when you're playing pirate
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Snapchat's recent IPO has acted as a warning for other companies looking to follow suit - with a largely unproven business model, shares have stayed just above the original IPO price, leading to trouble with greater losses for investors and missed analyst estimates. However, Snapchat's example has proved a weak deterrent.
Dropbox started as a free service for consumers to share and store photos, music and other files using cloud services. It switched to a commodified service once tech giants like Google and Amazon began offering storage for free.
It has since taken on a business focus, and requires companies to pay a fee based on the number of employees who use the service. It has also recently developed Smart Sync, which allows users to see and access all of their files, either stored on the cloud or on a local hard drive, directly from their desktop. After these changes, it has been estimated that Dropbox could generate $1 billion in revenue this year.
The decision by Dropbox to follow through with its IPO could lead it down the same road as Box Inc, a cloud content management and file sharing service based in California. Specialising in business users, Box Inc was valued at roughly $1.67 billion in its IPO in 2015 - significantly less than the $2.4 billion it had been valued at in previous private fundraising rounds.
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