Dropbox Priced at $21 a Share in I.P.O., Valuing Company at $9.2 Billion

Dropbox is the latest so-called unicorn to trot into the public markets.
Some 36 million shares in the company, based in San Francisco, were sold Thursday for $21 apiece, higher than the range of $18 to $20 a share that the company’s investment bankers had recently envisioned.
Founded in 2007 by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer science students, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox sells software subscriptions that let users collaborate and share files online. Until now, it was financed by private investors — including venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners — who valued the start-up at $9.4 billion, according to the research firm CB Insights. That large valuation earned Dropbox the coveted “unicorn” designation, which applies to start-ups valued at more than $1 billion.
The share sale on Thursday gave Dropbox a market value of about $9.2 billion. The shares are expected start trading Friday on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DBX.
The debut comes during a period of market turmoil. On Thursday, stock market indexes plunged more than 2 percent as investors fretted about the prospect of a trade war between the United States and China.
Dropbox’s initial public offering could pave the way for other unicorns to soon go public, letting their early investors and founders cash in on huge investment gains that currently only exist on paper.
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