Microsoft and Dropbox announce strategic partnership to give people more freedom in how they work

SAN FRANCISCO and REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 4, 2014 — Dropbox Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership to help people work more effectively. The two industry-leading companies are teaming up to integrate their services for collaboration across Dropbox and Microsoft Office on phones, tablets and the Web.

With data and mobile usage exploding globally, millions of people are turning to Dropbox and Office to access, manage and collaborate on their files from anywhere, anytime. Over 1.2 billion people use Office to get work done, and Dropbox has become home to more than 35 billion Office files.

“In our mobile-first and cloud-first world, people need easier ways to create, share and collaborate regardless of their device or platform,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “Together, Microsoft and Dropbox will provide our shared customers with flexible tools that put them at the center for the way they live and work today.”

“People around the world have embraced Office and Dropbox to empower the way they live and work today,” said Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox. “Our partnership with Microsoft will make it easier than ever to collaborate seamlessly across these platforms, giving people the freedom to get more done.”

This partnership will enable people at work, home and school to easily collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. These capabilities will first be available from within the Dropbox and Office apps on tablets and phones, and will soon be accessible via the Web.

Dropbox and Microsoft users can now do the following:

• Access Dropbox from Office apps to get to their files and folders faster.

• Edit Office files directly from Dropbox and sync them across devices.

• Share new or edited files from the Office apps using simple Dropbox sharing functionality.

The functionality will first be included in the next updates to the Office apps for iOS and Android, coming in the next few weeks. The Web integrations between the Dropbox website and Office Online will be available in the first half of 2015. Dropbox will also make its application available on the Windows Phone and Windows tablet platforms in the coming months.

These capabilities will be available to all Office users with a Dropbox account. Dropbox for Business customers will need an Office 365 subscription.