Before iCloud, Apple tried to buy Dropbox for nine digits

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Victoria Barret of Forbes profiles Dropbox today and reveals how co-founder Drew Houston was made an offer by Steve Jobs and Apple that it turns out he could refuse.

In December 2009 Jobs beckoned Houston (pronounced like the New York City street, not the Texas city) and his partner, Arash Ferdowsi, for a meeting at his Cupertino office. “I mean, Steve friggin’ Jobs,” remembers Houston, now 28. “How do you even prepare for that?” When Houston whipped out his laptop for a demo, Jobs, in his signature jeans and black turtleneck, coolly waved him away: “I know what you do.”

Housten and Dropbox didn't want a buyout, even a nine digit one. They wanted to build a company. Jobs told them they were a "feature, not a product" and at WWDC 2011 revealed iCloud.

The entire article is fascinating. Give it a read.

Source: Forbes

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

11 Comments
  • ...
  • Your a feature not a product, lololol.
  • pilisaint 2010/08/21 15:00 还不错,注册了二个邮箱,装在三台电脑上试验,功能真的很阳春,没有密码保护,也不能对没帐号的人共享,不过已经能满足我当前的需求,如果能直接切换帐号更好,现在必须先移除软件,重新安装,才能使用第二个帐号,否则就只能透过 共享给好友 来交换资料感谢~(0)
  • The only card Dropbox will be able to play, is the one that states that they're platform agnostic.
  • Dropbox is 100% better than the solution Apple built, that's why Jobs tried to buy it.
    iCloud is the worst implementation of a online backup/sync solution that I have ever used, and that includes solutions from Google, Microsoft and Nokia.
  • For anyone who takes the time to read the whole article, this Apple tidbit is just a footnote. Good luck to Mr. Houston and well done on his refusal to sell Dropbox.
  • They should have taken the offer. Icloud will make Dropbox obsolete.
  • They also have that whole full data storage encryption on their servers going for them. Most other services only offer that to Enterprise clients but Dropbox offers it to both Free and Consumer accounts.
  • One thing is certain: if you own a technology that Apple is willing to pay nine digits for, it will become an Apple feature one way or another.
    Way 1: Apple acquires your company (e.g. Siri.)
    Way 2: Apple implements the feature on their own (e.g. iCloud.)
    Up to you. Way 1 means money and security. Way 2 means that Apple could crush you. Flip a coin.
  • Humm...and I wonder why did everybody used to hate Microsoft when they did just that?
  • I think that the hole iMessage thing will grow into a form of Twitter amongst the ios allumni.