File-sharing company Dropbox is set to go public in the first half of this year. In its latest valuation, the company is said to be worth $10 billion.
The initial public offering will be handled by JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
$10 Billion Valuation
Dropbox's IPO will be one of the largest in recent years. The company is privately valued at $10 billion. One of the criticisms of the company is that the valuation is outdated.
Another criticism is that it hasn't raised a new round of financing since 2014. Dropbox's chief executive Drew Houston talked about the going public about the IPO but was cagey on the details of what's going to happen back in 2014.
"Our tank is full. There's always advantages to being public and disadvantages to being public, those are well known," said Houston. "We spend a lot more time about thinking about things like Carousel, Project Harmony and Dropbox for business and... getting these products into a lot of people's hands. That's our first job. We will get around to all the other stuff."
It's been almost four years since he talked about the company going public and it looks like its finally going to happen. The biggest winners of the deal will be those companies that were able to invest in it beforehand - Sequoia, Accel, Index Ventures, and Y Combinator.
Dropbox, Goldman Sachs, and Chase have not made a comment about the potential IPO.
Confidential Filing
For a company that's going to have an IPO having a confidential filing can seem strange. But these types of filings are allowed to be filed under the JOBS Acts. Confidential filings allow companies to submit information to the SEC without making them available to the public.
Dropbox is in good standing at the moment - its valued at $10 billion, its annual sales are more than $1 billion, and its cash flow positive. Dropbox competitor Box went public in 2015, its shares have risen more than 50 percent since its IPO.
One of Dropbox's most recent changes has been to add more color to its website design. Previously the website was blue, white, with gray outlines. Dropbox hopes that it would make it stand out more against its competitors.
Dropbox isn't the only tech company to file for an IPO this year, Spotify is also seeking to go public.
