Dropbox May Have Declined $800 Million Acquisition Offer from Apple

Friday September 9, 2011 8:26 am PDT by Eric Slivka

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.

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.

Top Rated Comments

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killerrobot

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 18 Votes

0815

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 13 Votes

ade2bee

38 months ago

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?!!

Rating: 9 Votes

nrose101

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 9 Votes

gpat

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 9 Votes

Rodimus Prime

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 8 Votes

samcraig

38 months ago

I'm glad DropBox didn't sell. Nothing more to say since the reasons are obvious.

Rating: 8 Votes

Peace

38 months ago

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.

Rating: 7 Votes

Peace

38 months ago

Ever heard of House fires or burglaries?

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

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.

:)

Rating: 6 Votes