International Shia News Agency

Dropbox buys Israeli startup CloudOn

SHAFAQNA – Throughout 2014, Dropbox became known for its acquisition approach to growth, buying a slew of startups that helped build out its portfolio of services. And it looks like the cloud storage provider has made its first purchase of 2015, buying the Herzliya, Israel-based startup CloudOn.

News of the deal was not formally announced by Dropbox (nor were any financial details), but CloudOn confirmed the acquisition on its website:

Today, we’re taking the next step toward our vision of reimagining docs – by joining the Dropbox team. Our companies share similar values, are committed to helping people work better, and together we can make an even greater impact.

CloudOn makes document editing and productivity tools for mobile devices and claims to have more than 9 million registered users. The five-year-old company started out with a focus on editing Microsoft Office documents, and continued to forge a tight compatibility with Word and other files.

In an email to ZDNet, a Dropbox spokesperson said CloudOn engineers in Herzliya will go on to form the first Dropbox office in Israel. The company already has engineers based in San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Dublin, Ireland.

It’s easy to see why Dropbox would be interested in CloudOn, considering its existing relationship with Microsoft. The two companies announced a partnershiplast November that would allow users to access Dropbox directly from Office apps and edit Office files from the Dropbox app. With the addition of further document editing and productivity tools from CloudOn, Dropbox is clearly taking steps to diversify its portfolio away from storage.

According to the CloudOn website, the service will cease operations on March 15.

Source : http://www.zdnet.com/

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