Dropbox Files to Go Public with over $1.1 Billion in Annual Revenue

[Megalith]

Cloud storage company Dropbox has filed for a $500 million IPO. The public filing has offered insight into its financials, which include $1 billion in annual revenue and 500 million registered users. The company will list on the Nasdaq as "DBX."

Dropbox's expenses have been driven by a swelling R&D budget, but the company became free-cash-flow positive in 2016. Unlike many cloud companies that rely on enterprise sales teams, over 90 percent of Dropbox's revenue comes from users purchasing their own subscription, the company said.

 

[Stimpy88]

what Would this company need a huge R&D budget for?

They store files, the have an already developed set of fully baked APIs and software. Are they trying to reinvent the hard drive?

Anyway, this is most likely the beginning of the end of Dropbox.

 

[0ptional]

Efficiency, continued security, monetization, tie ins with applications as they pop up and grow in popularity. etc.

 

[viper1152012]

As I empty my Drop-Box

 

[Jim Kim]

Are all the files stored on Dropbox going public or just the good ones.


i'll show myself out

 

[steakman1971]

I have used the free version of DropBox for years. I thought the paid version was high - I use Google Drive instead. I can't see the point of an IPO for DropBox. You do this to raise money typically - but it also makes you answer to the shareholders. I guess the company might branch out? Shrugs.

 

[bman212121]

Unlike many cloud companies that rely on enterprise sales teams, over 90 percent of Dropbox's revenue comes from users purchasing their own subscription, the company said.

Which is probably why they want money to help push dropbox infinite into corporate areas. I demoed it maybe a year ago, and it's controls were about worthless. If you had a group of competent users it might not be terrible, but it definitely wasn't doing anything more sophisticated than Google Drive can (Which isn't saying much). Once again the one with the most options in this space is Microsoft. Onedrive lets you get as granular as you want and put real controls in place on who can see files between users. Dropbox was completely user driven and the user could share data with anyone inside or outside of the company. It's an all or nothing approach for limiting that and there was no way to create a pre canned share that multiple users could see. (Like a cloud version of a network drive)

 

[TheSoldier]

Which is probably why they want money to help push dropbox infinite into corporate areas. I demoed it maybe a year ago, and it's controls were about worthless. If you had a group of competent users it might not be terrible, but it definitely wasn't doing anything more sophisticated than Google Drive can (Which isn't saying much). Once again the one with the most options in this space is Microsoft. Onedrive lets you get as granular as you want and put real controls in place on who can see files between users. Dropbox was completely user driven and the user could share data with anyone inside or outside of the company. It's an all or nothing approach for limiting that and there was no way to create a pre canned share that multiple users could see. (Like a cloud version of a network drive)

One drive isn’t bad for content control, but it is atrocious for syncing. Huge files seem to sync relatively decently, but once you have a few thousand files, it takes days to sync. That has been my experience a few years ago. Saying that, I have Dropbox personal right now and I’m a little iffy about it I will continue to use it. I’ve been thinking about an AWS private cloud, just don’t really have the time to set it up.

 

[c3k]

To create the algorithms to efficiently data-mine all the information they own, will cost money. Also, to create hierarchies and inter-relationship charts between the people who share files is an important field for marketing and the intelligence organs of the state. Gotta know who knows whom and what they share with one another. Hence, the IPO. (Okay, that's just my assumption.)

The other possibility is that the owners see a possibility to make money by having people throw money at the stock.

Heck, everyone does an IPO these days. Might as well...

 

[Lakados]

For work we are not allowed to use drop box because they will not guarantee that our data is not stored out of the country. Microsoft on the other hand built a few data centers specifically to allow us to use their Offixe 365 services including One Drive. Dropbox doesn’t have the cash to compete against that sort of thing so in that regards perhaps this IPO could allow them to do that. On the other hand it does make it so Amazon or Microsoft could just buy then as they have expressed interest in the past so who knows. Maybe somebody is just looking to retire and wants out with a pile of money.