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Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

reuters.com

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Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#61

Post by objclxt »

rubberband wrote: post #34
kriro wrote: post #13

Seems a bit like setting an anchor for a buyout. I have a feeling a 4 billion offer by Google/MS/Amazon would be accepted very quickly even if it was very little cash/all stock. Maybe my sense is very wrong but it seems like a decent time to get bought out timing wise.

Google or Microsoft won't buy them. They're hedging their bet that this technology will be a commodity soon (Google Drive and SkyDrive). It doesn't really fit in Amazon's universe. They already told Apple to screw (albeit only at 800M). I think that Drew is a True Believer, where he thinks there is tremendous growth potential in this space. And hell, anything's possible. Who would have thought that such a simple idea…

> It doesn't really fit in Amazon's universe.

Surely Dropbox must be one of AWS's biggest clients? It may not make sense for Amazon to buy them, but the more money Dropbox makes the more money Amazon make (at least whilst Dropbox are still using S3).

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#62

Post by thejosh »

buttsex wrote: post #12
twic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh. I don't use Dropbox, in part because of exactly that. I passed over Spotify for the same reason. Given feature parity, I will choose a browser-based solution over one that requires me to install some random binary blob every time.

Spotify has since come out with a web player [1] if you are still interested. [1] https://play.spotify.com/

Neat, but I hope they don't drop their Linux client, it really is nice.

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#63

Post by krrrh »

jwr wrote: post #36

Will the use the funds raised to finally optimize their CPU-hungry client, so that it doesn't cut my battery life by 30%? I'm worried about Dropbox. Worried that they concentrate on adding features (photo syncing?) instead of caring about their loyal paying business customers, who mostly want the software to Just Work and Work Well.

The dropbox client only uses a fraction of the CPU of every other cloud syncing client I've tried, and even most simple menubar utilities. Do you know of one that uses less CPU? I'm genuinely curious.

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#64

Post by carterschonwald »

jwr wrote: post #36

Will the use the funds raised to finally optimize their CPU-hungry client, so that it doesn't cut my battery life by 30%? I'm worried about Dropbox. Worried that they concentrate on adding features (photo syncing?) instead of caring about their loyal paying business customers, who mostly want the software to Just Work and Work Well.

Yeah. I'm having Dropbox disabled on my laptop by default because of how much CPU it'd randomly need evey single file change.

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#65

Post by rfnslyr »

jbrooksuk wrote: post #7
rfnslyr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That thread is hilarious, especially the first reply.

I wonder how the people who replied to that thread feel now?

I remember seeing that "4chan on HN" thread a few days back and they were ripping apart this Dropbox post.

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#67

Post by codex »

venomsnake wrote: post #41
jonathansizz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you're nitpicking, I'll just point out that both formulations actually have the same meaning. There's nothing (not even an implication) in the first quoted sentence that suggests that Dropbox is younger than its competitors. 'Competing with' and 'facing competition from' are exact equivalents.

I read "facing competition from" as being the incumbent and getting a challenge. And "Competing with" all are on equal basis.

Do you have any numbers to suggest that Dropbox usage is higher than Google or Microsoft or iCloud?

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#68

Post by will_work4tears »

rubberband wrote: post #34
kriro wrote: post #13

Seems a bit like setting an anchor for a buyout. I have a feeling a 4 billion offer by Google/MS/Amazon would be accepted very quickly even if it was very little cash/all stock. Maybe my sense is very wrong but it seems like a decent time to get bought out timing wise.

Google or Microsoft won't buy them. They're hedging their bet that this technology will be a commodity soon (Google Drive and SkyDrive). It doesn't really fit in Amazon's universe. They already told Apple to screw (albeit only at 800M). I think that Drew is a True Believer, where he thinks there is tremendous growth potential in this space. And hell, anything's possible. Who would have thought that such a simple idea…

Not sure if you are aware of it, but Amazon has a share in this space too, Amazon Cloud Drive[1]

[1]- http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=cd_def/186-4662895...

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#69

Post by judk »

execat wrote: post #9
ghshephard wrote: post #2

"Dropbox, which is increasingly competing with Microsoft and Google as well as fellow startup Box in the fast-growing field of cloud storage," This implicitly (if not explicitly) reverses the actuality, which is really: "Dropbox, which is increasingly facing competition from Microsoft and Google as well as fellow startup Box in the fast-growing field of cloud storage," They do a better job later on with, "Those featu…

"zOMG. You guys are going head on against the giants? Wow. So cool." They are probably looking at that reaction from the people who don't know the rough timeline when Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft's own service and Box started.

Steven Levy wrote about how Google Drive was built long before Dropbox, but was held back from launch due to internal political maneuvering about whether desktop files are welcome in the "cloud" world.

But yeah, Dropbox went on market first with abfully supported any-filetype local client sync, not just Office docs and photos and cloud-only videos.

Re: Report: Dropbox seeks new funding, valuing company at $8 billion

#70

Post by venomsnake »

codex wrote: post #67
venomsnake wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read "facing competition from" as being the incumbent and getting a challenge. And "Competing with" all are on equal basis.

Do you have any numbers to suggest that Dropbox usage is higher than Google or Microsoft or iCloud?

No ... I was just commenting on the linguistic part whether the two phrases mean the same. I moderately don't give a frak about the services due to my irrational, passionate and relentless hatred for everything cloud related. (I love the underlying technologies, I just hate the feudal model of a foreign service holding your data hostage)
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