Dropbox files for IPO of up to $500 million

(Reuters) - Data-sharing business Dropbox Inc on Friday filed for an initial public offering of up to $500 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company said it plans to have its common stock listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "DBX". bit.ly/2omUnih

Dropbox, which started as a free service to share and store photos, music and other large files, is facing heated competition from technology giants including Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).

Dropbox reported 2017 revenue of $1.11 billion, compared with $844.8 million a year earlier. The company’s net loss narrowed to $111.7 million from $210.2 million.

The California-based digital storage firm with 11 million paid users across 180 countries said that about half of its 2017 revenue came from customers outside the United States.

Goldman Sachs & Co LLC, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities are some of the leading underwriters for the IPO.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filing is usually a placeholder.