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It's also a little insulting that OP thinks Dropbox is stupid. They paid $100m (or whatever the number was) for a lot of reasons and I'd suspect that TechCrunch really likes Mailbox isn't one of them. I'd suspect the number of people on a wait list isn't near the top of the list either.

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Yup. It's not like they paid cash. I would be shocked if that price tag was not mostly stock, and tied to future performance. Details matter here, and everyone getting in a huff over something they really don't know about is just wasted emotion.

Number of people on the wait list is kinda significant. Call it a marketing list if you want and you'll realise there's definite value there.

I don't think the parent is saying there's not value in that wait list. I think he's saying that Dropbox probably valued the team, Mailbox's standalone potential, and potential synergies more than just the "marketing list".

Both really. Whatever monetary value you would put on that marketing list is tiny compared to the reported sum. Give me a few hundred grand and I'll get you that good of a mailing list. Dropbox doesn't need to spend 10s of millions on that.

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