Dropbox files for IPO of up to $500m

WASHINGTON: Data-sharing business Dropbox Inc on Friday filed for an initial public offering of up to $500 million with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The San Francisco-based company, which started as a free service to share and store photos, music and other large files, competes with much larger technology firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft Corp and Amazon. com Inc as well as cloud-storage rival Box Inc.

It plans to have its common stock listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “DBX.”

In its regulatory filing, Dropbox reported 2017 revenue of $1.11 billion, up 31 per cent from $844.8 million a year earlier. The company’s net loss narrowed to $111.7 million in 2017 from $210.2 million in 2016.

“With over a $1 billion in revenues it speaks to Dropbox’s success over the past few years and is an impressive number in a fertile space,” said Daniel Ives at research firm GBH Insights. “Dropbox’s business model has scaled successfully.”

The company’s biggest challenge is explaining to Wall Street what differentiates Dropbox from its many competitors, Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said on Friday.

“If Dropbox continues to focus on their user experience, they’ll be able to compete successfully for consumers and professionals,” Levie said. — Reuters