Test 2/10: Box said to have secretly filed for an IPO
The cloud-storage service has confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, reports Quartz.
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Cloud-storage service Box may be ready to go public.
The company has secretly filed paperwork for an initial public offering, reported Quartz on Thursday. Box has tapped banks Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan Chase as its top underwriters and could be looking to raise about $500 million in an IPO, said Quartz.
If true, it's not an unexpected move. CEO Aaron Levie said early last year that the company waseyeing an IPO in 2014. Box is aiming to hold its IPO in the second quarter, reported The New York Times.
Responding to a request for comment, a Box spokesperson said: "We don't have anything to share at this time. We're focused on continuing to build our business and expand our customer relationships globally."
The JOBS Act of 2012 allows companies with sales of less than $1 billion to begin the IPO registration process confidentially. This means a company can keep its filing -- which includes substantial information about the company, its customers, revenues, users, and so forth -- out of the public eye until it officially files for an initial public offering. Twitter took advantage of this provision in the JOBS Act with its recent IPO.
Box offers 10GB of free storage to anyone who signs up for a personal account. The company has also added more business options and occasionally offers additional storage to entice customers to its service over competitors like Dropbox and Microsoft's SkyDrive (which was just renamed OneDrive).
Box boasts 20 million users and serves 180,000 businesses, including 97 percent of Fortune's top 500 companies.
And don't forget about this related video on YouTube (see below).
Updated at 9:50 p.m. PT with additional comment from Box.