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More signs point toward imminent IPO for Box

The enterprise cloud storage service is said to be planning to double its revenue this year.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
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Rumors about Box declaring an initial public offering have been going on for more than a year now, but a new report suggests the wait could soon be over.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the enterprise cloud storage service is about to file an IPO in the "next few weeks."

Furthermore, citing unnamed sources, the news service said that Box is planning to double its revenue this year to more than $200 million, with Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and JPMorgan Chase working the IPO.

Without a doubt, Box is one of the top companies on the Wall Street debut watchlist this year being that it has been steadily growing its services and customer base since launching in 2005.

[For the full origin story behind Box, head over to ZDNet sister site TechRepublic for the complete account about how CEO Aaron Levie and his childhood friends founded the software company and continue to run it harmoniously to this day.]

The Los Altos, Calif.-based company had more than 180,000 companies signed on as customers to its cloud-based collaboration platform as of its third annual sales and developer summit, BoxWorks, back in September.

There has been speculation that Box was seeking to go public eventually, fueled by comments from co-founder Levie, who remarked in January 2013 during an interview with Bloomberg that Box was aiming to declare an initial public offering in 2014.

Inevitably, the anticipation started to pick up in pace last November, reaching a fever pitch in the last couple weeks -- with even a unique report that Hewlett-Packard might be in the market to buy Box. (A Forbes story that has since vanished.)

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