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Dropbox May Have Declined $800 Million Acquisition Offer from Apple

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Business Insider files this report under "gossip", but says that it has heard from a pair of second-hand sources that Apple bid up to $800 million for file storage and sharing service Dropbox, but Dropbox passed on the deal to remain independent. The company has since raised a new round of funding at a $4 billion valuation.
Enterprise software-as-a-service company Citrix and Apple took a long look at Dropbox's books.

They saw that Dropbox revenues would reach $100 million this year.

Apple, we're told, eventually offered $800 million.
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Dropbox has been extremely popular with users, offering clients for a host of platforms that allow users to easily access their files via the cloud from nearly anywhere. The service provides 2 GB of free storage for users, with paid upgrades to 50 GB and 100 GB available. The company has also rolled out "Teams" packages to allow groups to take advantage of the storage and sharing functionality with shared quotas and centralized billing.

Article Link: Dropbox May Have Declined $800 Million Acquisition Offer from Apple
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/09/dropbox-may-have-declined-800-million-acquisition-offer-from-apple/
Interesting piece of news... Not sure what to make of it yet.

Especially with the other rumor with a Twitter buyout...


Apple has the cash, and these two companies would be spectacular additions to the Apple enterprise.. I guess we'll wait to see if anything comes of it.
 
Thats what I always said: If apple wants to make iDisk useful they need to purchase DropBox ... too bad it didn't work out. I love dropbox - best way to combine the advantages of the 'cloud' with the advantage of local storage.
 
I love dropbox. I have been using since the year they came out and can't image living without them today. I am glad they have created a model where they can stay profitable and in business.
 
THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!

And what would be the point in apple buying a service that it is discontinuing... iDisc ... I've just spent time moving all my files over to Dropbox, ready to get used to not having mobile

What were they going to do...buy it and discontinue that as well?!!
 
Good for Dropbox "supposedly" not accepting the buyout. I'm a little sick of MS, Apple and Google buying up all the competition. It's really bad for innovation.
 
I am glad Dropbox turned them down. Apple would of screwed it up. Part of what makes Dropbox so powerful is the fact that it is platform independent.

The share folders that work with anyone who has an account not with people who own Apple products. Also like hell would Apple support Android, WP7 and Blackberry. It would be Apple products only.

Dropbox was smart enough to understand long term turning down Apple was a great idea because it never would of really gotten off the ground if Apple bought them.
 
I ADORE Dropbox! I wonder how its integration with iCloud would've turned out? Maybe it's best they stay on their own. Let's not fix what's not broken, I suppose. With that said, if Apple/iCloud provides something very similar and just as easy to use, I'll gladly switch. (I think iDisk was awful.)
 
I refuse to believe this. There is no reason for Dropbox to refuse a $800m acquisition, and no reason for Apple to want Dropbox. It operates in a really different way from Apple's philosophy, and user experience ideal.
 
ade2bee said:
THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!

And what would be the point in apple buying a service that it is discontinuing... iDisc ... I've just spent time moving all my files over to Dropbox, ready to get used to not having mobile

What were they going to do...buy it and discontinue that as well?!!
Click to expand...

That's exactly what they would do - buy out all the competition to iCloud. And I agree with you - thank God they didn't sell.

But I worry that DropBox will eventually give in, if Apple starts jacking up the buying price. Giants like MS and Apple usually get their way in the end.
 
killerrobot said:
Good for Dropbox "supposedly" not accepting the buyout. I'm a little sick of MS, Apple and Google buying up all the competition. It's really bad for innovation.
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Whats funny is that if they don't do this then people yell and scream about the big bad Apple destroying the little guy (iCloud really does compete with a lot of DropBox uses). See the whole Sherlock/Watson thing if you want an example.

And Dropbox does overlap with iCloud. DropBox is basically a file syncing service for the Finder with built in server storage. iCloud has a file syncing service via API with built in server storage. If you don't see the overlap there then okay. Biggest difference is iCloud is part of Apple's war on user-visible filesystems while DropBox is built on the user seeing the filesystem.
 
Actually I'm very happy Apple didn't buy Dropbox. Dropbox already works great with the Mac and iOS devices and apps and even the web. But it also works cross platform should you need that on Windows at some point. Dropbox out did iDisk a long time ago. Apple's iCloud is more of a catch up. By not being purchased by Apple, I think Dropbox has a bright future. Sometimes being a third party is better.:)
 
I don't understand what the big deal is with "cloud storage". If I want to store stuff I put it on an external drive.

If I want access to it on the road I bring a $20 thumb drive.
 
Dropbox, Groupon and all these other tech start ups are a bunch of complete idiots when it comes to business. Sure they invented a great product but there is nothing special or unique for Apple or Google to replicate. There are no barriers to entry in these products. They are better of selling them before the public realizes there is a failed business model and insufficient revenue and they cant get an IPO out.
 
I love Drop Box- from doing their free promos, referrals, and having a @edu email address I have nearly 10GB free (I could max at around 16GB from referrals) and it works fantastic. I write notes for classes and they are updated and easily accessible on my MacBook Air, iMac, iPhone, HP Touchpad, and both of my girlfriend's Macs.

I'm glad they didn't sell- $800M is too little for such a fantastic program. Kind of surprised that their revenue is ~$100M/year.

@Macinnv: While it could be replicated, it won't happen- at least not as good as well. For example: iDisk. That software was total ****. Essentially Dropbox, no? Accessible from Macs, PCs, iOS devices, browser, etc. Now we look at OS X Lion and 'AirDrop' seems like Apple's idea to having a Dropbox like program, at least for now. I for one have never used it, nor will I.
 
Peace said:
I don't understand what the big deal is with "cloud storage". If I want to store stuff I put it on an external drive.

If I want access to it on the road I bring a $20 thumb drive.
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It isn't really cloud storage that is the selling point. It is file syncing (that word that Apple is never going to say again and instead use the word "magic"). If you have multiple machines then you need to have some things synced. I'm not talking things like a word document but things like Papers2 or 1Password library. The ability to put project documents is a bonus.

As far as cloud storage, I use CloudApp. You are putting things on the CloudApp servers and don't really sync. It is good for sharing and storing images or links. Dropbox also has sharing but it isn't the primary point of the service. You can't just point to the service using a server somewhere and lump them all together.
 
Peace said:
I don't understand what the big deal is with "cloud storage". If I want to store stuff I put it on an external drive.

If I want access to it on the road I bring a $20 thumb drive.
Click to expand...

I agree with you to an extent. Trust me, I am, by no means, an advocate for the cloud. Personally, I like to have certainty that my data is securely stored and not have to depend on the cloud, or hope that my internet access doesn't fail me.

However, Dropbox is handy in the sense that I'm able to move stuff around between my home and office and not have to worry about thumb drives, emailing myself, etc. It's convenient to be able to 'drop' things into that folder and know it'll be waiting on me when I get home. Also, there are many pictures and documents that I keep on there that come in handy on my iPhone (via their native app), from time to time. Being that I'm all out of storage space on my phone, this is a nice way to still be to access a lot of that content.
 
Peace said:
I don't understand what the big deal is with "cloud storage". If I want to store stuff I put it on an external drive.
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Ever heard of House fires or burglaries?

But as others have already pointed up, backups are not the main reason people use Dropbox.

It's strange to think that Apple would have wanted to acquire dropbox since I essentially discovered Dropbox when looking for an iDisk replacement. (Following Apple's announced they would discontinue iDisk under iCloud.)

Maybe they would only have purchased it only for some of it's technologies and/or patents.
 
ade2bee said:
THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!

And what would be the point in apple buying a service that it is discontinuing... iDisc ... I've just spent time moving all my files over to Dropbox, ready to get used to not having mobile

What were they going to do...buy it and discontinue that as well?!!
Click to expand...

Big difference between iDisk and dropbox: iDisk was a mess, horrible slow and just done the wrong way. Dropbox on the other hand is well done, works smooth is fast. I used iDisk for a month or so and decided it is unusable - I am paying for dropbox (lots of money for the 350 GB Team account) and it is worth every penny.

Apple did not discontinue a service like dropbox - they discontinued a FAILED product that does not come even close to the functionality of dropbox.

It was a good decision from Apple to discontinue iDisk and it would have been even better to replace it with something that is more like dropbox.
 
0815 said:
Big difference between iDisk and dropbox: iDisk was a mess, horrible slow and just done the wrong way. Dropbox on the other hand is well done, works smooth is fast. I used iDisk for a month or so and decided it is unusable - I am paying for dropbox (lots of money for the 350 GB Team account) and it is worth every penny.

Apple did not discontinue a service like dropbox - they discontinued a FAILED product that does not come even close to the functionality of dropbox.

It was a good decision from Apple to discontinue iDisk and it would have been even better to replace it with something that is more like dropbox.
Click to expand...

Who knows what Apple would have done with Dropbox... especially with it being multi platform.
 
srobert said:
Ever heard of House fires or burglaries?

But as others have already pointed up, backups are not the main reason people use Dropbox.
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Yup. Heard of them all..
And they are just as likely to occur as a tech site "accidentally" losing your info or having it stolen.


But hey. to each their own. Use it. Be happy.

:)
 
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