Dropbox in Talks for an IPO This Year

According to sources, Dropbox has been holding meetings with banks and discussing a possible Initial Public Offering this year, probably in the second half.

The market has definitely been waiting for its next hot tech IPO and it seems it is going to be Dropbox and Box, two rivals in online file storage. Dropbox could be the first to go public since it’s already meeting with bankers to assess their views, after which Dropbox will choose the banks to run its IPO. Box has said it’s more likely to go public in 2014.

Dropbox has an estimated worth of around $4 billion and has created a lot more buzz than any of its competitors. Its consumer focused strategy helped the company reach more than 200 million users. There have been a lot of questions about its future growth though.

Dropbox gave its answer to those concerns on Tuesday, when it showed off a new version of its cloud storage system aimed at businesses, instead of consumers, opening a new area for growth. The move also makes it more competitive with Box, which is primarily geared toward corporate customers. Box could be worth around $2 billion.

I think it is a wise move by Dropbox to move in to corporate business as well and I guess they have done their homework on that. Dropbox’s expansion into corporate customers shows it has learned from the IPO ghosts of the past. Only time can tell how it fares on the stock market.