Apple tried to buy Dropbox for $800m

Here’s a juicy rumour, and it is only a rumour at present, that is doing the rounds this morning: Apple offered $800m for internet file storage service Dropbox – and Dropbox passed.

We’re not sure when Apple made the offer, but certainly while Steve Jobs was still CEO and probably at the start of the summer.

Dropbox accepted a huge round of investment this summer and is valued at around $4bn, making founder Drew Houston a paper billionaire.

Drew Houston

When Apple took a look at Dropbox, revenues of $100m were forecast for this financial year.

Dropbox makes its money from a classic freemium business model — the first 2GB of storage are free, but if you need more you’ll pay an annual subscription fee. A referral-based system allows that free allowance to reach 8GB.

Dropbox was launched in 2007 and is a file hosting service which uses cloud computing to allow its users to not only store but to share their files and folders with however they wish too using the internet. All files uploaded to Dropbox accounts are kept in perfect sync. It is perfect for uploading movies, music and other large files – and far more popular/better than Apple’s MobileMe service, which explains the interest.

Will Apple come back with an offer Dropbox can’t refuse? Watch this space.