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Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

nytimes.com

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Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#121

Post by toomuchtodo »

gamblor956 wrote: post #119
toomuchtodo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building something is hard. Writing a check is easy. Apple could easily make the payout contingent on a smooth integration. Apple could even have a foreign subsidiary purchase Dropbox, thereby allowing for full use of its external profits it hasn't brought back to the US due to taxes. That's the benefit of cash. It solves almost every problem.

They have rules to prevent this. See IRC Section 956. In essence, the use of a foreign sub to acquire a US company would be treated as a deemed dividend back to Apple.

Today I learned! Thank you for sharing!

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#122

Post by malchow »

subdane wrote: post #102
malchow wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if -- hold your breath! -- Dropbox is simply a medium-sized, privately held, profit-generating company that will end up satisfying a certain customer segment and paying dividends to investors? The horror!

Their investors will revolt. Their investors need 10X returns in the next couple years to satisfy their fund's existence to their LPs. Funds need a few big wins like Hollywood studios need a couple blockbusters every year. Dropbox's investors are counting on them being a blockbuster. Dropbox's private valuation is an order of magnitude higher than Box's public valuation. And Box has a bigger sales team, more revenue,…

I fully concede your point. I think the private financing markets need to become more sophisticated out here, such that they enable the type of company I described -- which I reckon is the type of company Dropbox should be -- to thrive. There are a few very clever and small investors who already do this. But they're a minority.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#124

Post by thesimon »

Scarblac wrote: post #82
cjensen wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and I'm also a happy customer of Dropbox. But how long will it be until OneDrive or iCloud Drive catch up? I have 1TB of OneDrive space for "free" with Office. I have plenty of spare space in my iCloud storage plan. If either of those two options catch up to Dropbox's reliability, why would I stay with Dropbox? Long term, why will Dropbox survive?

Dropbox is much cheaper than either Office or an Apple device.

>Dropbox is much cheaper

[citation needed]

Office: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-Personal-Year-Card/dp...

$57 for 1 year of Office + 1 TB of storage

Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/plans?trigger=homefoot $9.99 for 1 month of dropbox with 1TB (=> $120/year)

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#125

Post by saumil13 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #68

> Dropbox is not laying off workers or shrinking; it hired nearly 500 people last year, 75 since the start of this year, and it plans to soon move into a sprawling, custom-designed office building for which it has signed a long-term lease. Honest question: WTF are they doing?

Why i like and dislike DBX (note: i'm completely on AAPL ecosystem in HW):

+ sync works better than any other out there

+ its quick in sync esp between other machines in same network

+ sharing folders and links is much easier than other including iCloud

+ developer adaptation is high on mobile apps which is turning out to be increasingly valuable last year or so

- expensive and limitation of option plans

- extremely poor biz plans and tools, esp if you're a startup

- privacy: hugely concerned about it and haven't heard much from their comms teams about what they are doing to protect me or providing backdoors or govt snooping. (better to move to iCloud for personal info)

- no new noteworthy features - almost 'feels' like the product is stuck in 2012 era

- MS and DBX integration sounds awesome on paper, i have had an incredibly frustrating time using it. Both companies are pointing finger at each other for live editing and sharing.

Once developers start offering iCloud as sync option often, i'll move over.

Edit: formatting

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#126

Post by vlucas »

I really don't understand all the negative Dropbox sentiment these days. Who cares if the investors aren't getting a 10x return? How does that materially affect you as a customer? Why are you even cheering for that anyways?

I am a very happy paying Dropbox customer. It's a solid product that does the job very well and isn't stuffed with a bunch of other useless features I don't need. It's pretty much perfect.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#127

Post by rokhayakebe »

subdane wrote: post #102
malchow wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if -- hold your breath! -- Dropbox is simply a medium-sized, privately held, profit-generating company that will end up satisfying a certain customer segment and paying dividends to investors? The horror!

Their investors will revolt. Their investors need 10X returns in the next couple years to satisfy their fund's existence to their LPs. Funds need a few big wins like Hollywood studios need a couple blockbusters every year. Dropbox's investors are counting on them being a blockbuster. Dropbox's private valuation is an order of magnitude higher than Box's public valuation. And Box has a bigger sales team, more revenue,…

Not every investor is looking for a 10X. DB raised 1.17B, with 1.1 of those in the last three rounds (according to Crunchbase). The last three rounds were 250M,350M, and 500M. A round was 6M.

Say A round wanted 100x. B round 10X. C round 7x. D round 5x. That will bring the total expected return to around 8B. However I am sure C and D would not mind a 3X or 2X, while B would probably settled happily for a 5X.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#128

Post by rokhayakebe »

tholmes wrote: post #85
malchow wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if -- hold your breath! -- Dropbox is simply a medium-sized, privately held, profit-generating company that will end up satisfying a certain customer segment and paying dividends to investors? The horror!

Companies like that don't usually hire 600 people in 12 months, though. Buuut I guess they could. I guess it just kind of looks like the explosive hiring you see sometimes when a company has projected huge growth but then falls flat and realizes it has way too many employees :(

During holidays you see retailers hire to capitalize on the season. We should consider the same for startups, i.e. hire a bunch of people for a year or two to capitalize on the opportunity, then let them go. Everybody wins if it is clear from the beginning that when the well dries, everyone leaves.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#130

Post by [deleted] »

azinman2 wrote: post #94
bsaul wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i suppose that once every software comes from the cloud and their data is stored in the cloud as well, you'll barely "see" your files anymore. but i don't think it will happen anytime soon. even on iOS, i often find the need to make data backups using files.

Data backups of what? iCloud backs up your entire phone. Most apps store stuff remotely on their servers. And even in the case of photos various services will sync those off your phone as well.

[deleted]
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