Dropbox Indeed Balked at Major Acquisition Offer from Apple
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.”
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.
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.
Top Stories
Apple has officially retired Beats Updater, the software utility that lets users update the firmware of their Beats Wireless headphones, earphones, and speakers.
Beats Updater allows users to plug their Beats product directly into the USB port of their computer to check for firmware updates online, but with Apple's growing tendency to deliver over-the-air updates to wireless products via iOS ...
A bug in the built-in Calculator app in iOS 11 is getting some major attention this week, despite the fact that it's been around since iOS 11 was in beta testing.
At issue is a calculator animation that causes some symbols to be ignored when calculations are entered in rapid succession. You can try it for yourself: Type 1+2+3 and then the equals sign into the Calculator app quickly.
Due to...
The iPhone 13 will feature low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication connectivity to allow users to make calls and send messages in areas without 4G or 5G coverage, according to the reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In a note to investors, seen by MacRumors, Kuo explained that the iPhone 13 lineup will feature hardware that is able to connect to LEO satellites. If enabled with the relevant...
We've seen a lot of teasers about the Beats Studio Buds over the past month since they first showed up in Apple's beta software updates, and today they're finally official. The Beats Studio Buds are available to order today in red, white, and black ahead of a June 24 ship date, and they're priced at $149.99.
The Studio Buds are the first Beats-branded earbuds to truly compete with AirPods...
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone's past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone's lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed...
Wednesday April 21, 2021 6:38 am PDT by
Sami FathiApple yesterday announced a completely redesigned 24-inch iMac with the M1 Apple silicon chip. The new iMac, the first major redesign of the Mac desktop computer since 2012, has several changes compared to the previous generation.
In the aftermath of the event, a few new features and tidbits may have slipped under the radar, so we’ve compiled this list of some of the less-talked-about...
Google and the three major U.S. carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, will all support a new communications protocol on Android smartphones starting in 2022, a move that puts pressure on Apple to adopt a new cross-platform messaging standard and may present a challenge to iMessage.
Verizon recently announced that it is planning to adopt Messages by Google as its default messaging...
Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple's new M1 chip.
"After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it's exciting to...
With the launch of Apple's iPhone 13 lineup believed to be just a few weeks away, we have compiled all of the coherent rumors from our coverage over the past year to build a full picture of the features and upgrades coming to the company's new smartphones.
For clarity, only explicit improvements, upgrades, and new features compared to the iPhone 12 lineup are listed. It is worth noting that...
Apple's next-generation iPhone 13 lineup will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X60 5G modem, with Samsung to handle manufacturing of the chip, according to DigiTimes.
Built on a 5nm process, the X60 packs higher power efficiency into a smaller footprint compared to the 7nm-based Snapdragon X55 modem used in iPhone 12 models, which could contribute to longer battery life. With the X60 modem, iPhone...
Top Rated Comments
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.
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.
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'm interested in Dropbox precisely BECAUSE of the iCloud release.
After iCloud was announced, and no iDisk replacement was announced, I immediately signed up for DropBox. Umm, they're kinda not the same service at all. :rolleyes: