Dropbox Inc. is opening a $600 million line of credit as the cloud storage service heads towards its initial public offering, according to a report published Thursday.

Bloomberg, quoting the usual “people familiar with the plans,” said that the line of credit came from six banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., intended to give Dropbox flexibility (in this case money) as it prepares its IPO.

When the long-rumored public offering may occur though remains a somewhat mystery. The report claims that while the company hasn’t set specific timing, potential advisers believe it will be ready to go public by the end of the year.

Dropbox, founded in 2007 and an early innovator in cloud file storage, has struggled in recent years as Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and others have launched competing products that are often offered for free or at significantly lower cost than Dropbox’s own offerings.

The company has attempted over time to shift its focus away from simple file storage to an enterprise-focused offering. For instance, in July it launched AdminX, a dashboard for information technology administrators that enables better control and customization of corporate files and user accounts. And in January it announced Smart Sync, a tool for Dropbox Business users that makes it easy to access shared files without having to download them all at once.

Dropbox’s road to its IPO hasn’t been without drama, however. A hack discovered in 2012 was later found to be far more extensive than it initially disclosed as the details of some 68 million account holders found their way online.

On the positive side, Dropbox is said to be close to being profitable, a rare thing in the age of tech companies such as Snap Inc. going public with not only negative bottom lines but warnings that they may never be profitable.

A possible public offering, whether it occurs this year or in 2018, is considered by some to be intriguing, given that Dropbox last raised money on a $10 billion valuation in 2014 but since then had its valuation cut in half. Whatever the date, the new line of credit is a fairly typical strategy for more mature companies that need more funds but don’t want to dilute current shareholder value with another venture capital funding prior to going public.

Photo: 126940499@N05/Flickr