Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#431

Post by coffee » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:51 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #139

schneidmaster wrote: post #3

Ugh. Yet another intriguing email startup being acquihired and killed off by a more-established tech company (see also: Sparrow). It's 2015 and I still bounce around email clients every couple months because all of the major options have substantial flaws.

Everyone want to "fix" email, and replace it with some proprietary bullshit. Email isn't broken.

Email, unfortunately, is very broken.

Spam, in the I'm getting random Viagra emails sense, is being handle very well lately.

That said... We have a very large industry that easily helps you get your "ham" (the mail in-between Spam and mail you really want to receive) inboxed.

This is email from legit companies. Maybe you signed up to a newsletter, maybe you didn't. Maybe you're just getting a cold email. But those emails are inboxed.

People are still complaining about being overwhelmed by their email, even though our Spam filters have improved greatly.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#432

Post by _urga » Sat, Dec 12, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

nl wrote: post #420

_urga wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Stock is a very cheap way for a company to acquire another." Not exactly. Could be the other way round too. It depends on whether the stock of the company is worth more or less than cash in the long run.

Yes. Except since it is the company issuing stock in itself you can't really think of it as fungible. If it ends up being worth more than the strike price then literally one of the events that led to that price was the purchase stock being issued. Of course that doesn't mean the is a causal link, but in a very real sense the stock was free for the company itself. The only cost to the company is opportunity cost.

"in a very real sense the stock was free for the company itself"

Stock always has value, especially to management.

Unless the company has poor self-esteem. :)

The reason so many technology companies today make acquisitions using stock is because they (correctly) understand their stock to be inflated, relative to intrinsic value. If that were not the case, if they understood their stock to be undervalued, then they would definitely not be giving it away in transactions. They would be making all-cash offers instead.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#433

Post by plemer » Sat, Dec 12, 2015, 7:21 PM UTC

oneJob wrote: post #402

widdershins wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a ditch dug around a castle to stop people getting in. i.e. the 'wall' in the walled garden.

So, "wall" != "moat" Some castles had a wall and a moat. Anywho. I think there is a differences in kind here that is material to the discussion.

A moat is a competitive advantage that's hard for competitors reproduce or otherwise overcome. Coke's moat is its near universal brand awareness and affinity. Comcast's moat is its infrastructure and political clout. Crossing a moat in any conventional way is very resource intensive and often leaves the challenger vulnerable.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#434

Post by free2rhyme214 » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 8:39 PM UTC

dmbaggett wrote: post #295

free2rhyme214 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 1996 there was a huge need for airfare search. Look at the success you've had. On the contrary email in 2015 isn't a huge need or a pain point for most people. Since you're entering a crowded market your product has to be 10X better. Currently it's probably not which is why most people perceive Inky as a marginal improvement. Still I'd love to see other projects you're working on Dave. Clearly you're talented and…

Are you a venture capitalist? Because if not, you should be!

Not yet but I appreciate the compliment.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#435

Post by free2rhyme214 » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 8:40 PM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #298

free2rhyme214 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Dropbox Paper is like Box Notes. It's nifty but why switch from Google docs?

Because your documents are already in dropbox. I believe that is the main value proposition.

How is that a value proposition? You still have to open Office to see your word, excel or ppt docs.

DB simply looks at what Box is doing and puts it on their backlog in JIRA.