Not The Onion: Dropbox, an Online Storage Start-Up, Seeks $8 Billion Valuation

[indythinker85]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/dropbox-an-online-storage-start-up-seeks-8-billion-valuation/

Dropbox is just the latest young technology company to seek a sky high valuation. Last week, it was revealed that Snapchat, a photo sharing application with no revenues, turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook. Twitter is valued at more than $22 billion after a week and a half of trading. Box, another online storage company that competes with Dropbox, is valued at more than $1 billion and is looking to conduct its initial public offering next year. And Pinterest, a bookmarking service, recently raised $225 million at a valuation of $3.8 billion.

[Hielko]

Seems like a better deal than $3B for Snapchat

[constructive]

http://pandodaily.com/2012/02/26/steve-jobs-was-right-dropbox-is-a-feature-not-a-product/

 

"In 2009, Steve Jobs wanted to pay more than a hundred million dollars for Dropbox. As Houston later told Forbes’ Victoria Barret, when he politely turned down his hero’s offer, Jobs declared that Dropbox was a feature, not a product."

[constructive]

Pinterest at $3.8B seems somewhat less crazy than those others. It seems stickier.

[Pauly]

I use Dropbox frequently. They've done a nice job of making the program easy to use across phones/tablets/desktops. But, I only use the free services so they're losing money on me...and I actually don't know anyone who's upgraded to a paid plan. I'd be interested to see their numbers.

 

Do you think the YouTube guys are kicking themselves over selling too soon?  With these difficult to monetize startups being valued so highly, what would a YouTube IPO have looked like today?