Cloud Storage Hotshot Dropbox Buys DropTalk for Web Messaging

Cloud storage vendor Dropbox, facing new competition from Apple’s (AAPL) WWDC-announced iCloud Drive Internet storage app, has snapped up web-based messaging developer Droptalk for an undisclosed sum.

Dropbox grabbed Droptalk while it still was in stealth mode—the developer’s browser-based messaging add-on, served up as a Google (GOOG) Chrome extension, is in beta with iOS and Android versions subsequently in the works.

Dropbox doesn’t just get Droptalk’s product; it also gains the company’s founding engineers, who reportedly already have shuttled over to the parent company. Droptalk was founded a year ago by ex-Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn engineers whose idea was to improve sharing and communication with a tool that works inside a browser or on a tablet or smartphone and dispenses with emailing back and forth. The tool also integrates inside the user’s cloud storage app so if an ongoing conversation gets updated by a collaborator, it’s viewable in real-time.

“About a year ago we set out to end the unnecessary friction around communication and collaboration by killing ‘the work email,’” company founders Anand Prakash, Ash Bhardwaj, Rakesh Mathur, Manveer Chawla, Nirmesh Mehta, wrote in a blog post.

“Armed with bootstrap funding and a team of ex-Facebook and LinkedIn engineers we set out to change the way people not only messaged but how they actually got work done across all their devices,” they said. “With Droptalk all your communications happened in the browser, tablet or phone, eliminating the need for emails. What’s more is anytime you updated your shared folders in the cloud, everyone else in the conversation could see the updated version and go directly to the document or link right in the very same thread.”

In the acquisition’s wake, Droptalk blogged that it’s no longer accepting beta candidates for its app.

“As part of our transition to Dropbox, we are no longer accepting new beta signups,” wrote Droptalk engineers and top brass in a blog post. “We would like to thank all the people that took part in our beta and gave us valuable input.”

Dropbox chief executive Drew Houston is an avowed email hater, who recently said, “I hate email, it hasn’t really evolved since the 1970s when it was born.”

Droptalk adds to Dropbox’s acquisition spree of the past few months that’s seen the vendor acquire Loom, a photo app developer; Hackpad, which makes a collaborative document tool; Zulip, for coporate chatting; and Readmill, for its social e-book reader. The vendor reportedly landed some $500 million in debt financing recently to add to the $350 million in equity funding it secured from venture capital firms and equity investors a few months ago.