Dropbox on Friday announced that it has acquired Mailbox, the email app that has many iPhone users finally reaching—however briefly—inbox zero.
Dropbox writes that the Mailbox team’s “calling was the same as ours at Dropbox—to solve life’s hidden problems and reimagine the things we do every day. We all quickly realized that together we could save millions of people a lot of pain.”
When I interviewed CEO Gentry Underwood at the time of Mailbox’s launch, he told me that that Mailbox’s goal was to remain independent, and that an acquisition for the company would be akin to admitting defeat. Buyouts are “always a risk, to be honest,” Underwood said then. He added that he thought a company should seek acquisition when “a product isn’t going at a consistent scale, or isn’t likely to grow into a big business, so the team needs to find a home for it, or find a home for the talent.”
Underwood further added at the time—just over a month ago—that while Mailbox could face those issues, “our hope is to build a big and real business out of this.” The CEO didn’t immediately respond to Macworld’s request for comment regarding what has changed since then.
Says Dropbox, “We’re all looking forward to making Mailbox even better and getting it into as many people’s hands as possible. There’s so much to do and we’re excited to get started!”
Author: Lex Friedman, Senior Contributor
Lex is a former writer for Macworld. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three kids.