Dropbox seeking S$311 million in funding

[CityFarmer]

The IPO shouldn't be too far away, after this round of funding, IMO...

Dropbox seeking S$311 million in funding

NEW YORK — Online storage, once a backwater of the Silicon Valley technology scene, is suddenly a hot commodity.

Dropbox, a five-year-old San Francisco start-up that allows users to access stored documents via the Web, is seeking US$250 million (S$311 million) in funding in a round that would value it at more than US$8 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

If successful, such a fund-raising round would more than double the company’s valuation. It last took on money in October 2011, when it raised US$250 million at a valuation of about US$4 billion.

Though it was not immediately clear who was prepared to invest in Dropbox at this valuation, venture capital firms are sitting on billions of dollars, looking to pour late-stage capital into well-established companies that are likely to go public or be sold.
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http://www.todayonline.com/tech/dropbox-...on-funding

[CityFarmer]

MS new strategy of office subscription model, gives free cloud-storage too, as bundled benefit...

Dropbox struggles as competitors catch up

SAN FRANCISCO — Dropbox, which became a household name around the world by giving away cloud storage, is seeing its rivals gain ground as it struggles to come up with a clear business strategy.

The eight-year-old company, valued at about US$10 billion (S$13.4 billion), had 300 million registered users a year ago and has grown that to 400 million today. However, its efforts to make money from business users have been less impressive.

While Dropbox led the US$904 million global market for business file-sharing last year with an approximately 24 per cent share, second-placed Box and third-placed Microsoft each took about 21 per cent and doubled their slice of the pie by growing almost twice as fast, IT researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said.
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http://www.todayonline.com/tech/dropbox-...tors-catch