Box May Be Going To IPO Territory

Even though it is now facing tighter competition than ever and its future may be facing a whole lot of uncertainty, cloud storage provider Box looks like it might be thinking about filing paperwork for an initial public offering. The company will have to prove that it is differentiated from more well-known cloud brands like Dropbox and exciting newcomers like Google Drive.

It might not seem like an IPO is anything that Box should be considering right now, since the current state of the cloud industry dictates that it should focus on really building its brand from something that appeals to a niche market to something that every enterprise customer should be using. Nevertheless, in an interview with Reuters, Box CEO Aaron Levie sure seemed like it was something that's on the table, though admittedly not for the immediate future.

Asked about IPO possibilities, Levie was quoted as saying, "It won't be a 2012 exercise. Even though the market is pretty amazing right now, there are some things we want to get done as a company. We see these moves as ways of building a strong foundation." The next 12 months will see a fundamental revolution in cloud services. If Box goes into an IPO next year, it will need to be a much different produce than it is right now.

[via Reuters]