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Report: Dropbox prepping for IPO later this year

Dropbox could be filing an initial public offering this year, but will it follow in the beleaguered path of consumer tech brands such as Zynga or enterprise wins like Workday?
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Dropbox has already been in the planning stages and holding meeting with banks about turning into a public company during the second half of 2013, according to Quartz.

Based on unnamed sources said to be "briefed on the talks," Quartz suggested that the cloud storage provider is ready for an initial public offering now following the debut of its new business products.

Earlier this week, Dropbox rolled out several new features and a new console for IT administrators as it attempts to ramp up its enterprise efforts.

The additional set of services for businesses certainly makes Dropbox look more well-rounded, which frames the San Francisco-based company with more of an enterprise tech edge rather than a plain consumer one. That would be especially vital if Dropbox is trying to court banks and investors right now.

Looking back at the major technology IPOs in 2012, the clear trend was that enterprise technology ones soared -- and the consumer ones flopped. Just compare Zynga and Facebook versus the likes of Workday and Palo Alto Networks.

Using Workday, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in October, as a prime example, the Software-as-a-Service provider debuted at $28 per share -- already higher than previous expectations -- to close out the first day at roughly $50 per share.

There haven't been many murmurs about an IPO before, but Dropbox also could be pushing to go public this year to beat competitor Box to the punch.

Last month, Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie revealed that Los Altos, Calif.-based company was aiming to declare an IPO in 2014. Levie hinted that 2013 was still a possibility, but he still described it as a "long shot."

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