SMU Corporate Governance Initiative · Reincorporation Tracker

Dropbox, Inc.

DBXNASDAQ Information Technology · DE → NV

Announcement
2025-02-10
First SEC disclosure
Meeting / Vote
2025-01-28
COMPLETED
Effective
2025-03-05
Legal effective date
Market Cap
$6.3B
At announcement

Why this firm matters

Standard cohort firm (Completed). Included for breadth across destinations and sectors.

Controller & ownership

CONTROLLED COMPANYFounder Supervoting Class

Drew Houston (Co-founder/CEO, via Class B 10:1 supervoting) holds approximately 78.7% of voting power. This firm meets the strict listing-rule controlled-company threshold (controller holds >50% of voting power per NYSE Rule 303A.00 / Nasdaq Rule 5615(c)).

Source: DBX 2025 DEF 14A (annual meeting May 15, 2025, accession 0001467623-25-000047) + Houston Schedule 13G/A (Dec 31, 2024, amended March 31, 2026) — Houston beneficially owns ~76.6M Class B + 8.27M Class A directly + trusts; 214.1M Class A + 76.9M Class B outstanding; Class B carries 10 votes/share; combined voting power (8.27M + 76.6M×10) / (214.1M + 76.9M×10) = 774.3M / 983.3M = 78.7%. Note: ~80 Class B stockholders total; Houston is the majority holder. Controlled company under NYSE Rule 303A.00 (>50% voting power). Tracker's prior ~80% ESTIMATED figure refined to 78.7% precise. Corrected 2026-05-19 via Tier-3 overnight reviewer dispatch.

Vote outcome — reincorporation proposal

Approval standard: majority of voting power of outstanding shares entitled to vote (written consent under DGCL §228 or state equivalent). Meeting type: annual.

Vote totals not yet pulled. Awaiting EDGAR Item 5.07.

Event-study abnormal returns — announcement window

Returns around the announcement date.
Event date: 2025-01-31 · Estimation window: 2024-02-15 to 2025-01-30 (240 days)
SpecificationDay-0 ARInference
Synthetic control (9-donor Information Technology peer pool)i-0.31%no inference
Market model (SPY benchmark)i+0.60%Patell-z p-value = 0.776
Sector-augmented model (SPY + Nasdaq-100 (QQQ)) HEADLINEi+0.70%Patell-z p-value = 0.739
Matched pair (vs BOX, market-model-adjusted)i-0.05%two-sided p-value = 0.984
Raw differential vs BOXi-0.42%no inference
Robustness checks — does the headline result hold up?

Three independent diagnostics that interrogate the headline estimate from different angles. All three pointing the same way = high confidence in the result.

  • Pre-event drift check: the firm's daily abnormal return drifted by +0.0050% per day in the pre-event window (p = 0.013). pretrend detected. — A near-zero slope means the pre-event period was stable, so the day-0 reaction is not contamination from a pre-existing trend.
  • Donor co-movement check: 5 of 9 peer firms moved in the same direction as the treated firm on the event day (binomial p = 1.0000). — A high concordance means the day was driven by industry-wide news rather than something firm-specific. A low concordance means the firm moved differently from peers (potential firm-specific signal).
  • Synthetic-control fit quality: pre-event correlation between the firm and its synthetic twin = 0.842 (good tracking); R² = -5.791 (fraction of pre-event variance explained); Durbin-Watson = 2.00 (no autocorrelation). — Higher correlation + higher R² + Durbin-Watson near 2 means the synthetic peer was a good match before the event, so the post-event gap is interpretable.

Event-study abnormal returns — vote window

Returns around the shareholder-vote (or written-consent) date.
Event date: 2025-03-05 · T0 source: actual_effective_date_iso · Estimation window: trailing 240 days; 240 valid after NaN drop
SpecificationDay-0 ARInference
Market model (SPY benchmark) HEADLINEi-1.05%Patell-z p-value = 0.548

Long-run abnormal returns & pooled estimates

Buy-and-hold abnormal returns (1 / 3 / 6 / 12 months) and calendar-time portfolio alpha (CTE) post-effective.
Effective date: 2025-03-05 · n_post = 290 days

Buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHAR)

Horizon & benchmarkBHARInference
1 month  vs S&P 500+9.61%Patell-z = +1.25 · p = 0.210 · n = 21 days
1 month  vs sector ETF (XLK)+13.67%Patell-z = +1.25 · p = 0.210 · n = 21 days
3 months  vs S&P 500+8.43%Patell-z = +0.91 · p = 0.361 · n = 63 days
3 months  vs sector ETF (XLK)+3.88%Patell-z = +0.91 · p = 0.361 · n = 63 days
6 months  vs S&P 500-0.18%Patell-z = +0.67 · p = 0.504 · n = 126 days
6 months  vs sector ETF (XLK)-7.12%Patell-z = +0.67 · p = 0.504 · n = 126 days
12 months  vs S&P 500-14.89%Patell-z = +0.60 · p = 0.551 · n = 252 days
12 months  vs sector ETF (XLK)-22.91%Patell-z = +0.60 · p = 0.551 · n = 252 days

Calendar-time portfolio alpha (CTE)

SpecificationAnnualized alphaInference
Calendar-time portfolio alpha  vs S&P 500-18.43%/yrt = -0.93 · p = 0.351 · n = 290 days · Newey-West HAC SE (lag=5)
Calendar-time portfolio alpha  vs sector ETF-19.23%/yrt = -0.95 · p = 0.342 · n = 290 days · Newey-West HAC SE (lag=5)

Cohort-level robustness battery

Heckman selection-corrected ATE · Romano-Wolf step-down + BH FDR · pooled BHAR. This firm's reading is shown in context of the full cohort.

Heckman two-step selection correction (controlled-vs-widely-held)

Cohort ATE = +0.94% (SE = 7.06%, n = 2395) after correcting for controller-status selection (inverse Mills ratio = -0.062).

Romano-Wolf step-down + Benjamini-Hochberg FDR (n = 47)

This firm: raw p = 0.739, Romano-Wolf adjusted p = 1.000, BH-FDR adjusted p = 0.966. Multiple-hypothesis correction is computed across the full cohort to control family-wise error rate at alpha = 0.05.

Pooled cohort BHAR (mover firms only)

BHAR_63d: mean = -5.60% (SE = 22.11%, n = 3, p = 0.499) · BHAR_126d: mean = +17.33% (SE = 41.17%, n = 3, p = 0.774)

See Cohort event study → for the full battery and forest plots.

Nevada Statutory Disclosures

Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) governance provisions relevant to Delaware→Nevada redomestications. Five sections summarized; each links to the Nevada Legislature’s authoritative NRS text. Counterpart to the Texas § 21.552 / § 21.373 panel for TX-destination firms.
Codifies the business-judgment rule and limits monetary liability of directors and officers absent breach of loyalty, intentional misconduct, fraud, or knowing violation of law. Stronger statutory shield than DGCL § 102(b)(7) on its face; charter opt-out / carve-out is firm-specific.
PENDING VERIFICATION
Adoption with carve-out by Dropbox, Inc.: primary-source verification pending; canonical record not yet populated.
Broad permissive indemnification statute; covers expenses, judgments, fines, and amounts paid in settlement for any action by reason of service as director or officer, subject to good-faith standard. Charter / bylaw uptake is firm-specific.
PENDING VERIFICATION
Dropbox, Inc. indemnification provisions pending charter / bylaw extraction.
Nevada's control-share acquisition statute (anti-takeover): voting rights of shares acquired in a “control-share acquisition” are extinguished absent disinterested-shareholder approval. Opt-out is by charter or bylaw amendment; default is opt-in for Nevada corporations meeting the statute's coverage thresholds.
PENDING VERIFICATION
Dropbox, Inc. opt-in / opt-out status pending charter or bylaw verification.
Nevada's business-combination statute (anti-takeover): for two years post-acquisition, a Nevada corporation may not engage in a “combination” with a 10%+ interested stockholder unless the board pre-approved the transaction. Charter opt-out available.
PENDING VERIFICATION
Dropbox, Inc. opt-in / opt-out status pending charter verification.
Authorizes conversion of a foreign business entity into a Nevada domestic entity by filing articles of conversion. The Nevada analog to DGCL § 266 (Delaware) and TBOC §§ 10.101–108 (Texas). Where used, the firm's redomestication is a true legal-entity conversion rather than a reverse-triangular merger.
PENDING VERIFICATION
Mechanism (§ 92A.135 conversion vs. merger-with-NV-sub) pending primary-source verification.

Primary-source pending. Where badges read “PENDING VERIFICATION,” the firm-specific adoption posture (e.g., charter carve-outs to NRS § 78.138, opt-outs from NRS §§ 78.378–3793 or 78.411–444) has not yet been extracted from the firm’s amended-and-restated articles or proxy materials. The presence of a Nevada incorporation alone does not establish adoption of every provision; opt-outs are charter-level facts.

Source filings

Primary-source documents on SEC EDGAR plus IR / search links.

Classification & audit trail

Bucket
A
Panel eligibility
PRE_SB29_BENCHMARK
Audit status
VERIFIED_WRITTEN_CONSENT
Source confidence
VERIFIED_EFFECTIVE
Transaction status
COMPLETED
Audit notes
[2026-04-28] Phase 4I: replaced Google-search IR fallback with direct URL https://investors.dropbox.com/
[2026-04-28] Phase 4K: corrected mechanism (was implied meeting, actually WRITTEN CONSENT under founder-controlled dual-class structure). PRE 14C 2025-01-31; eff 2025-03-05 5:00pm PT. Removed phantom 2025-06-04 meeting date — that was unrelated annual meeting, not the reincorporation vote. Pre-SB29 NV benchmark.
[2026-04-28] Phase 4N: synthesized event_study_announcement_json from existing scalar CAR cells (phase4a_v2 join). Reviewer can extend with multi-spec analysis. [2026-04-28] phase5e: cleaned edgar_accession_canonical: extracted '0001140361-25-003654' from raw value '0001140361-25-003654 (DEF 14C effective Mar 5, 2025; Houston trust written consent)' (source=dashed) [2026-04-29] phase5g: WRITTEN_CONSENT — meeting_date_iso set to consent execution date 2025-01-28 (reviewer: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm) [2026-04-29] phase5g: vote_source set DEF 14C acc=0001140361-25-002654 url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm (written-consent transaction; reviewer: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm) [2026-04-29] phase5g: WRITTEN_CONSENT — meeting_date_iso set to consent execution date 2025-01-28 (reviewer: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm) [2026-04-29] phase5g: vote_source set DEF 14C acc=0001140361-25-002654 url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm (written-consent transaction; reviewer: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1467623/000114036125002654/ny20042422x1_pre14c.htm) [2026-04-29] phase5m: DBX vote_mechanism already=WRITTEN_CONSENT; Item 8.01 8-K confirms reincorporation effective March 5, 2025 at 5:00pm PT, written consent of stockholders Jan 28, 2025 per board recommendation; primary source: Form 8-K filed March 10, 2025 (Item 8.01 Other Events); user-provided IR URL: https://dropbox.gcs-web.com/node/12371/html [2026-04-29] phase5r: bucket 'B2' -> 'A' (DE->NV effective 2025-03-05 < SB29 (2025-05-14) -> bucket A (pre-SB29)) [2026-04-29] phase5w: comprehensive validation by external reviewer across tranches v4 (4-version full residual walk, 269 substantive answers across 52 firms, 0 bucket drifts vs v3.58)
[2026-04-29] v3.75: written-consent transaction; approval_pct NULL by design per protocol §3.7. Standard derived from DGCL §228. Per-firm consent threshold pincite pending PRE 14C / 8-K review.

Related firms

Use these for cross-firm sanity checks — peers in size, sector, or destination.
nearest size
Caris Life Sciences, Inc. (NasdaqGS:CAI)
CAI · TX → TX · $6.0B
same sector
Datadog, Inc.
DDOG · DE → NV · $81.8B
same destination
Datadog, Inc.
DDOG · DE → NV · $81.8B

← Back to The Reincorporation Tracker · Cohort event study · JSON for DBX