Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 164 posts

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#101

Post by [deleted] »

bogomipz wrote: post #91
okmokmz wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snare transitive verb 1b : to win or attain by artful or skillful maneuvers

This exactly supports my point. There was no artful or skillful "maneuvering" on Dropbox's part. They made an offer and negotiated a purchase that was amenable to both parties. Had this been a hostile takeover or had Dropbox forced them to sell "snare" would indeed be applicable. However the Dropbox relationship was one Hellosign unequivocally stated they were "thrilled" about as far back as last November: https://ww…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#102

Post by bduerst »

siruncledrew wrote: post #95
tomasien wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

revenue * multiple let's say $10m in ARR * a 23x multiple The way you get to the multiple is a combination of how fast the revenue is growing, how long you think that will keep up, and the margin of the revenue. Craftsman Tools, for example, was probably not growing much or shrinking and likely had low margin revenue but I don't know.

Would revenue or assets be used? So once the accounting statements are reviewed, then most of the acquisition talk is just a discussion over a multiplier?

Depends on the business. Something like Zipcar or similarly asset-heavy would incorporate assets in an MnA valuation, but SaaS would not unless they're flush with valuable patents.

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#103

Post by eridius »

rmkrmk wrote: post #58
tln wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used Paper? Also an acquired team, and a great product that has seen a bevy of improvements since being under Dropbox.

Paper is a security nightmare. Every document is automatically accessible publicly if you know the url. You need to set each document individually to private. At least for the Personal/Pro plans.

The URLs contain a long random string in them, no? This makes them unguessable. Public-by-default seems to enable easy sharing of documents. I would hope that corporate plans would impose stricter privacy controls, but for personal use, being able to share a document just by sharing its URL seems very convenient. Though I suppose defaulting the permissions such that anyone with the URL can edit the document seems maybe too permissive.

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#104

Post by basch »

rrggrr wrote: post #63
faitswulff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it make sense to give them decision making power over the rest of Dropbox's marketing and product direction, not just HelloSign's pending integration?

Correct. I think the HelloSign acquisition is an attempt to position for medium and enterprise sales. However, I suspect Dropbox doesn't have competencies to execute on that in marketing or sales. Again, there are 2 or 3 more acquisitions they need to make... now... to make all this tick.

and those companies are ...?

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#105

Post by mevile »

eridius wrote: post #103
rmkrmk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paper is a security nightmare. Every document is automatically accessible publicly if you know the url. You need to set each document individually to private. At least for the Personal/Pro plans.

The URLs contain a long random string in them, no? This makes them unguessable. Public-by-default seems to enable easy sharing of documents. I would hope that corporate plans would impose stricter privacy controls, but for personal use, being able to share a document just by sharing its URL seems very convenient. Though I suppose defaulting the permissions such that anyone with the URL can edit the document seems may…

This is security by obscurity, it's still technically possible to access the documents. Like if you accidentally revealed the URL somehow. You shouldn't have to worry about things like that.

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#106

Post by [deleted] »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #99
nostromo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DocuSign makes like $700 million a year. HelloSign makes less than $4 million a year (according to Crunchbase at least). If Dropbox was buying revenue then by Docusign's multiple they handsomely overpaid for HelloSign. But they're not buying revenue, so who knows if they over or underpaid.

That can't possibly accurate, right? If their revenue is 4M, the acquisition is 57x their rev. That's crazy. Except if they have long time contracts signed maybe?

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#107

Post by TuringNYC »

nvr219 wrote: post #30
tln wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used Paper? Also an acquired team, and a great product that has seen a bevy of improvements since being under Dropbox.

Literally all I want from Dropbox is to sync files between my various devices. I am not interested in doing anything else with it.

Thats what I wanted it for. Then a single license magically turned into 5 enterprise licenses, became impossible to cancel, and drove me away from the company forever. I mean...$750/yr to sync files?

Please dont mess up HelloSign like you did with the parent company!

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#108

Post by tradesmanhelix »

joeblau wrote: post #88
PStamatiou wrote: post #87

This is awesome news, congrats folks!! Have relied on hellosign over the years, including doing all of my home buying paperwork with it.

I've used HelloSign as well, but every other app that I used that Dropbox bought has been discontinued so while I'm happy for the team, I don't have high long term hopes for the project.

This. After Dropbox acquired and then unceremoniously killed one of my all-time-favorite apps (Umano), I greet most of their acquisitions with dread.

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#109

Post by dc_gregory »

ed_balls wrote: post #90
gilbetron wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It needs a lot more work, the search is horrible, and there are a number of features needed to take it to the next level. So far their feature velocity has been tepid. I like a lot of the ideas, and appreciate a viable google docs alternative, but I fear a Dropbox-level of feature development will doom Paper long term.

I'm forced to use Paper as a wiki now. Search, discoverability and extensibility is so bad that I miss Confluence....

Ouch. Have you used something in that space that is better?

Re: Dropbox buys HelloSign (YC W11) for $230M

#110

Post by zawerf »

PurpleRamen wrote: post #48
nvr219 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally all I want from Dropbox is to sync files between my various devices. I am not interested in doing anything else with it.

I think improving on the syncing-workflow and enhancing it to offer more then just syncing would be something useful. Something like automated actions, or filters. I store sourcecode in my dropbox, and I really would prefer a way to not sync certain junk-files from compiling-process. Or let it automatically commit to a git-repo if there are changes in certain folders. Something like IFTTT for files seems a sane solut…

I do something like this with their CLI to ignore node_modules folders for js dev on mac/linux:

    exclude_folders=$(find . -type d -name "node_modules")
    dropbox exclude add $exclude_folders
    dropbox exclude list # Sanity check
Post reply on HN