Dropbox, the company best known for nearly rescuing a ragtag group of emoji from a teenager’s phone in The Emoji Movie, has filed for an initial public offering.
Dropbox CEO Drew HoustonPhoto: Eric Kayne (AP)
Famously told it was doomed to failure by the late Steve Jobs, Dropbox reportedly began preparing paperwork for its long-rumoured IPO back in July, which it kept under wraps until today. Following much the same plan of action, teaser trailers for The Emoji Movie cropped up around December of 2016, nine months ahead of its September 14 wide release.
Dropbox is seeking to raise $US500 million ($638 million) – a US dollar for each of its registered users – an order of magnitude more than the budget of The Emoji Movie, in which Dropbox was mentioned repeatedly and ham-fistedly, only to have its significance to the plot immediately stripped away by an antagonistic robot who kidnaps the film’s hero, Gene Meh (TJ Miler), from the cloud.
“Life would be a lot better if everyone could access their most important information anytime from any device. Over the past decade, we’ve largely accomplished that mission,” the IPO’s prospectus summary notes, “but along the way we recognised that for most of our users, sharing and collaborating on Dropbox was even more valuable.” That’s a sentiment the protagonists of The Emoji Movie – who learn to work together to accomplish their goals and self-actualise while giving back to the community they exist in – could almost certainly empathise with.
Unlike the profitable Emoji Movie ($US86 million, or $108 million, domestic gross), Dropbox continues to lose money after 10 years in operation, though the company is showing impressive growth of late. Nothing compared to the personal growth of Gene Meh, Jailbreak, and the residents of Textopolis who recognise that just being yourself is what life is all about – but growth nonetheless.
Dropbox’s SEC filing can be read here, and the script of The Emoji Movie (2017), where Dropbox is mentioned by name over half a dozen times, can be read here.