Dropbox, which will list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “DBX,” is one of the most prominent technology initial public offerings of the past few years.
SAN FRANCISCO — Dropbox, one of technology’s “unicorns,” has filed for an initial public offering.
Valued by private investors at $10 billion, the cloud storage company listed an initial offering size of $500 million in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. That figure is often a placeholder. Dropbox had previously filed the documents confidentially.
Founded in 2007, Dropbox lets users and businesses store and manage files online or “the cloud.” It says it plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker “DBX.” Dropbox shares could begin trading as early as the week of March 19.
According to the public filing, Dropbox revenue in 2017 rose 31% to $1.1 billion and its net loss of $111.7 million shrank from 2016 when it recorded a net loss of $210.1 million. The service has 11 million paying users, but most of its more than 500 million users don’t pay for the service.
People familiar with the offering told the Wall Street Journal that Dropbox is expected to seek a public valuation of about $7 billion to $8 billion, making it the largest tech IPO since Snap in March 2017, but a far cry from its private valuation in 2014 of $10 billion.
Tech giants like Apple and Google elbowing into the online storage space for consumers forced Dropbox to switch its focus to the storage needs of businesses. Dropbox has become one of the leaders in business storage along with Google, Microsoft and Box, but faces mounting competition.
Dropbox, which was founded by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, promises to be one of the most prominent technology initial public offerings of the past few years. It’s a tech industry “unicorn,” meaning Dropbox is one of those start-ups with a billion-dollar-plus valuation. Many of the unicorns have taken big chunks of private capital to put off an IPO. The unicorns still on the IPO sidelines include ride-hailing company Uber and home-sharing company Airbnb.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank are among underwriters of the IPO, according to the filing.
