Dropbox is currently in the process of considering an initial public offering (IPO) and is planning on hiring Goldman Sachs Group to advise it on the matter, sources with knowledge of the company’s plans said on Thursday. The San Francisco, California-based cloud startup has previously talked with JPMorgan Chase that it also considered hiring, insiders said, adding that while no banks have yet been given the gig, Goldman Sachs is currently the likeliest candidate to lead Dropbox’s future IPO. The startup may file the necessary documentation to go public as early as this year, depending on the state of the market and its performance in the coming months.
Goldman Sachs already has a working history with Dropbox, having previously advised the company on a number of matters, sources familiar with the collaboration said. With Dropbox’s IPO plans still being far from finalized, none of the involved parties have yet commented on the matter in any capacity. Dropbox may ultimately decide against going public this year and indefinitely postpone such a move, insiders believe. A decade after being established, Dropbox is still growing at a steady pace and is running a profitable business, its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston said earlier this year. With the Californian startup performing in such a positive manner, it isn’t surprising that its top management is considering going public and cashing in on their recent results. Houston himself publicly touted the company’s financial health this spring but stated that the firm won’t file for an IPO in the immediate future.
The last round of funding Dropbox went through saw the cloud service valued at $10 billion in 2014 and its valuation would likely be even higher today, with its finances still being healthy and its business continuing to grow. Dropbox is the latest Silicon Valley startup with IPO ambitions that were made public shortly after Snap’s shares were listed in March. Spotify and a number of other tech companies are currently said to be considering filing for an IPO in what could be the first major wave of tech listings at the New York Stock Exchange in the last several years.