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Dropbox Indeed Balked at Major Acquisition Offer from Apple

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Apr 12, 2001
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Last month, word surfaced that popular file storage and sharing service Dropbox may have declined an $800 million acquisition offer from Apple, instead deciding to remain independent and raise its own financing.

A new profile of Dropbox appearing as the cover story for a forthcoming issue of Forbes reveals that Apple did indeed pursue Dropbox, with Steve Jobs personally meeting with Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi amid the possibility of a "nine-digit" deal.
"I mean, Steve friggin' Jobs," remembers Houston, now 28. "How do you even prepare for that?" When Houston whipped out his laptop for a demo, Jobs, in his signature jeans and black turtleneck, coolly waved him away: "I know what you do."
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As Jobs made his pitch for Dropbox, Houston cut things short, telling Jobs that Dropbox was not interested in being acquired.
Jobs smiled warmly as he told them he was going after their market. "He said we were a feature, not a product," says Houston. Courteously, Jobs spent the next half hour waxing on over tea about his return to Apple, and why not to trust investors, as the duo--or more accurately, Houston, who plays Penn to Ferdowsi's mute Teller--peppered him with questions.
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Jobs reportedly attempted to follow up with Dropbox after the initial meeting, suggesting a second meeting at Dropbox's headquarters. But when Houston said that he preferred to meet elsewhere, so as to not give Jobs personal insight into Dropbox's operations, Jobs went silent. Apple of course introduced iCloud, its own syncing solution, earlier this year and went live with the service just last week.

Article Link: Dropbox Indeed Balked at Major Acquisition Offer from Apple
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/18/dropbox-indeed-balked-at-major-acquisition-offer-from-apple/
The thing is, I've always seen Dropbox as a feature, just couldn't put it into words before. iCloud is more of a product, that's for sure. Wonder where Dropbox is going to be years from now.
 
I don't know if acquisition would've been a good thing or a bad thing... but I do know that iCloud's ultimate success will mean ultimate failure for Dropbox.

Apple's vision is a 'fileless' solution, where you simply trust that all your data is 'there' somewhere. Dropbox is all about files on a filesystem. I personally like the idea of knowing where exactly my files are (and knowing that I have a copy on my local filesystem), so Dropbox is perfect for me (has been for a few years now).

However, I know many people who just type up a document and take pictures, and could care less how they're stored, whether they're backed up four times, and how to get to them—as long as they can.

I wonder, though, why Apple wanted to buy Dropbox... was it more of a goodwill gesture? iCloud seems to not really need Dropbox's particular functionality. Maybe the syncing skillset and talent.
 
On one hand, he might not have had to work another day, and could have gone on to create other services.

They are another eShop... will they fly once venture capitalist funds begin to dry up? Will they reach mass profitability... I have my doubts.

On the other hand, Jobs abandoned iDisk and is essentially handing the market back to them. So much iCloud can't do that Dropbox does.
 
geerlingguy said:
I don't know if acquisition would've been a good thing or a bad thing... but I do know that iCloud's ultimate success will mean ultimate failure for Dropbox.

Apple's vision is a 'fileless' solution, where you simply trust that all your data is 'there' somewhere. Dropbox is all about files on a filesystem. I personally like the idea of knowing where exactly my files are (and knowing that I have a copy on my local filesystem), so Dropbox is perfect for me (has been for a few years now).

However, I know many people who just type up a document and take pictures, and could care less how they're stored, whether they're backed up four times, and how to get to them—as long as they can.

I wonder, though, why Apple wanted to buy Dropbox... was it more of a goodwill gesture? iCloud seems to not really need Dropbox's particular functionality. Maybe the syncing skillset and talent.
Click to expand...

Doubtful. The real reason why Dropbox is super successful is that its platform agnostic: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Windows Phone, etc... Apple would have taken that company, sucked it up, discontinued all clients and probably just come out with the same version of iCloud today. Remember they rarely buy companies for their actual product but for their talent.

Don't forget that not everyone uses all Apple devices, and iCloud is still rather neutered on Windows compared to what it can do in OS X. It only has access to photo stream and nothing else; no app data.
 
I have 2 words for these guys: "Exit Strategy"

Oh well, I wish them well. Given the push of both consumer facing and enterprise facing "cloud" solutions (in all categories, processing, platform, storage, software, etc) I hope they have several more tricks up their sleeves.
 
Gotta love Jobs' attempt, though. It's so measured and confident.

The acquisition will happen (by someone.) All in its own time . . . all in its own time.

Of course, Apple has between now and say, next June, to introduce a Dropbox-like service (that actually works like it should . . . iDisk, I'm looking at YOU) and kill the need for Dropbox altogether.

It's just that at this point, Drew Houston thinks he's Mark Zuckerberg. We'll see if he's right.
 
DropBox will continue on regardless of iCloud. Why? With drop box you can load any type of file you want. iCloud is limited - applications have to explicity support iCloud.

There are more potential users for Dropbox than iCloud, so I don't see why iCloud determines Dropbox's future. iCloud is far less flexible.


geerlingguy said:
I don't know if acquisition would've been a
good thing or a bad thing... but I do know that iCloud's ultimate success will mean ultimate failure for Dropbox.

Apple's vision is a 'fileless' solution, where you simply trust that all your data is 'there' somewhere. Dropbox is all about files on a filesystem. I personally like the idea of knowing where exactly my files are (and knowing that I have a copy on my local filesystem), so Dropbox is perfect for me (has been for a few years now).

However, I know many people who just type up a document and take pictures, and could care less how they're stored, whether they're backed up four times, and how to get to them—as long as they can.

I wonder, though, why Apple wanted to buy Dropbox... was it more of a goodwill gesture? iCloud seems to not really need Dropbox's particular functionality. Maybe the syncing skillset and talent.
Click to expand...
 
geerlingguy said:
I don't know if acquisition would've been a good thing or a bad thing... but I do know that iCloud's ultimate success will mean ultimate failure for Dropbox.

Apple's vision is a 'fileless' solution, where you simply trust that all your data is 'there' somewhere. Dropbox is all about files on a filesystem. I personally like the idea of knowing where exactly my files are (and knowing that I have a copy on my local filesystem), so Dropbox is perfect for me (has been for a few years now).

However, I know many people who just type up a document and take pictures, and could care less how they're stored, whether they're backed up four times, and how to get to them—as long as they can.

I wonder, though, why Apple wanted to buy Dropbox... was it more of a goodwill gesture? iCloud seems to not really need Dropbox's particular functionality. Maybe the syncing skillset and talent.
Click to expand...

Apple would buy dropbox for the talent. You have a bunch of people who have worked hard at the solution, and with that work comes a lot of experience, something which is hard to find even amongst the brightest of people.

I am not sure what is up with some of the startups these days. First Groupon turned down a $6Bn offer from Google, and now DropBox turns this offer down? Although, maybe they figured that since Apple is getting iCloud, a competitor might find them even more valuable.
 
I think iCloud and Dropbox will both survive.

There will always be a market for the 'non-Apple' version of something. Because of what Apple is they will never build something that does everything. This means there will be features to offer to the folks who want something different than what iCloud offers.

I really like Dropbox so I'm glad it's going to be them. A world with Apple and Dropbox is a good one. I'd rather have this than Apple + someone else I've never heard of.
 
I find iDisk very useful to me. I'll likely be getting a Dropbox account very soon and moving my iDisk files to Dropbox.
 
I just can't believe that this was a smart move. I would have seriously considered his proposal.
 
bad move by dropbox,

iCloud is now competition and will beat it

why should you be interested in dropbox after iCloud release?
 
addicted44 said:
I am not sure what is up with some of the startups these days. First Groupon turned down a $6Bn offer from Google, and now DropBox turns this offer down?
Click to expand...

They think they're the next Facebook. Or Apple.

They'll find out soon enough that both acts (and opportunities) are difficult to follow.
 
Well he might regret this decision now or down the road. If iCloud becomes really successful then the need for Dropbox will diminish as their value.
Well there is always Microsoft to offer them some change....
 
iCloud is so mac-focused and mac-limited in a way that dropbox has never been, that I just don't see how iCloud can realistically "kill" dropbox.

I use dropbox every day. I take it for granted. When I sit down at someone else's computer, i notice that my dropbox accounts aren't there pretty much right away.

I've got drop box on my macs, my android phones, and my pc.

Apple's solution wants me to buy an iphone and remove all options and choice from my world completely.

But what is the icloud analog to having a customer send you production files via a shared dropbox folder, which then syncs to your phone and your laptop and your work computer automatically? There isn't one. dropbox does this intelligently and seamlessly and QUICKLY. Apple is too worried about keeping everyone in their universe, and most people aren't in their universe to begin with, so the market for dropbox is bigger just from the get-go.
 
I think they made the right decision. And I'd argue that Jobs was pretty arrogant to suggest that Dropbox is a feature - not a product. iCloud, if anything, is just a feature - and one limited to the Apple ecosystem.

While iCloud might be a great solution for some - Dropbox offers something else and for a variety of audiences. And based on many comments on this forum - iCloud isn't even living up to its hype. Again - different strokes for different folks.
 
I think another tablet producer will make them an offer they can't refuse, all in a failing attempt to play catch-up with Apple.
 
With Amazon, google, Microsoft, and Apple coming out with their own cloud based solutions for their given products, I don't see Drop Box having much of a future. Perhaps Jobs was a bit blunt calling them only a feature (if he actually said that), but I totally agree with this.
 
Thank god Dropbox refused to get bought by Apple, the same thing would happen to Dropbox what happened to Siri, they would close it and probably use it as a next iPhone feature only.
 
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