Box CEO Aaron Levie is known as one of the wittiest young tech leaders in the Valley.
His April Fool's joke, with Dropbox as the butt, proves it.
The dig at Dropbox is subtle but unmissable.
In announcing that his file-sharing company is merging with payments processor Square to form a new company called Polyhedron, Levie makes fun of Dropbox's acquisition of Mailbox, hinting that the only thing these two companies really have in common was the "box" in their names.
Levie also takes a shot at Samsung, a major Dropbox partner, which includes its file-sharing service on its Android smartphones.
Here's the full text of the of the gag as it appears on Tumblr, with emphasis added:
Square + Box = Polyhedron
We’re insanely excited to announce the merger of Square and Box, and the birth of Polyhedron.
I’ve been DMing Jack a lot lately, and when he does respond, every conversation inevitably leads to talking about shapes. Round shapes. Pointy shapes. 3D shapes. Thomas Friedman once said, “The world is flat.” Bullshit. Due to this shared belief that shapes are the source of all innovation and beauty, we simply knew we had to find a way to work together.
Serendipitously, around this time customers began telling us, “I want to be able to pay for things and share files. Why are these separate activities?” After hearing this almost multiple times, we realized we had to fit the pieces together.
Picture this: you’re at Starbucks, paying for your favorite latte on your phone with Square. While incredibly cool, it’s…well, a little two-dimensional. But suddenly, you want to share a completely unrelated file with your boss. Just last week, you would have had to open an entirely different app, your beverage growing cold in the process. No longer. Polyhedron brings the power of two insanely great shapes in one magical experience. Boom: new dimension.
Sometimes companies merge because of strategic fit, culture, and shared vision. And while we think these are certainly compelling reasons to join forces, sometimes the real strategic value is in similar names.
Sometimes 2 plus 2 equals 5. In this case it’s 4^N. We think customers will be delighted by this combination. This is just the beginning. In the future, we will look to aggressively roll up other shape-inclined companies. And while we’re biased towards right angles, that will not limit our ambitions.
After all, simplicity isn’t just about focus. It’s about disrupting traditional ways of thinking about all the shapes around us, and how these shapes can fit together.
Following Samsung’s lead, Jack and I will be looking for a third co-CEO, given that triangles are the optimal executive shape. Polyhedron will be located in Union Square in San Francisco.
Signed,
