Dropbox to acquire e-signature software firm HelloSign

Dropbox will acquire HelloSign for $230 million in cash

Dropbox is to acquire e-signature software firm HelloSign for $230 million in cash.

The deal, which is Dropbox's biggest-ever purchase, will help the company to expand the capabilities of its cloud storage platform, and will also put it in competition with companies such as DocuSign and Adobe in the electronic signatures domain.

Dropbox, a maker of software for storing and sharing files in the cloud, went public last year. While, the company exceeded analysts' estimates in its first three quarterly earnings reports, its stock has not shown any significant rise to reward investors since Dropbox's IPO in March 2018.

"We're thrilled to welcome HelloSign's talented team to Dropbox and add their capabilities to our product suite," Dropbox's CEO Drew Houston said in a statement.

"HelloSign has built a thriving business focused on eSignature and document workflow products that their users love. Together, we can deliver an even better experience to Dropbox users, simplify their workflows, and expand the market we serve," he added.

HelloSign's popular signature tool allows users to apply their signatures to digital documents and also ask for signatures from others. Companies like Google, Salesforce, as well as Dropbox, are embedding the software into their own products or websites. Instacart, which manages personal shoppers to deliver groceries to customers, also uses HelloSign's e-signature tool to help people fill-in the forms needed to join Instacart quicker.

HelloSign also provides HelloWorks and HelloFax tools for managing the flow of paperwork and virtually faxing documents, respectively.

After the deal is closed, HelloSign will continue to operate as an independent business. "We have to maintain this neutrality," said Quentin Clark, Dropbox's senior vice president of engineering.

HelloSign's CEO Joseph Walla will report to Clark, and both companies will work to push more Dropbox users to choose HelloSign for documents requiring e-signatures.

The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

HelloSign is based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2010 out of investment firm Y-Combinator. HelloSign has about 80,000 customers, including Samsung, Twitter, Intuit, and Lyft. Investors include Alphabet's Google Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Greylock Partners.