UPDATED 00:05 EDT / JULY 03 2017

APPS

Dropbox is plotting an IPO later this year, report says

File-sharing service Dropbox Inc. could be the latest major technology firm to undergo an initial public offering, following reports it’s to begin interviewing investment banks in coming weeks.

Reuters said the IPO would be a “key test” of Dropbox’s worth following its $10 billion valuation in a 2014 private funding round. The report drew comparisons with Snap Inc., which launched its own IPO earlier this year but was forced to lower its valuation because of investors’ concerns over its unproven business model. Reuters also noted that other companies, including Airbnb Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., have decided against an IPO on concerns that investors might assign lower valuations to them.

At this point, 2017 is proving to be an interesting one for IPOs, with some enterprise-focused companies such as MuleSoft Inc. and Okta Inc. seeing success, while other companies such as Snap Inc. have fallen flat on their faces. Another notable disappointment, so far at least, is big data company Cloudera Inc., which saw its share price fall by 18 percent following its first post-IPO earnings report.

Despite the risks, some privately held companies are facing increasing pressure to go public as investors look to cash out, Reuters said.

Dropbox could well be one of them. Founded back in 2007, the company began life as a simple, consumer-oriented cloud storage service that let people share and store things such as photos and music. In recent years, however, Dropbox has pivoted to focus on serving enterprise customers, and is now on track to generate $1 billion in revenues this year. It also recently expanded its Dropbox Business offering, which is a subscription-based service priced according to the number of users.

Dropbox has collected a total of $607.22 million in funding over five rounds since its founding from investors that included Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price and Greylock Partners.

Image: Ian Lamont/Flickr

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