PROXY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 14(a) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Filed by the Registrant ☒

Filed by a Party other than the Registrant ☐

Check the appropriate box:

Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box):

 

Dear Stockholders of Dropbox, Inc.:

We cordially invite you to attend the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders (the “Annual Meeting”) of Dropbox, Inc., a Delaware corporation, to be held on May 18, 2023 at 9:00 am Pacific Time. The Annual Meeting will be conducted virtually via live audio webcast. You will be able to attend the Annual Meeting virtually by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DBX2023, where you will be able to listen to the meeting live, submit questions and vote online.

Whether or not you attend the Annual Meeting, it is important that your shares be represented and voted at the meeting. Therefore, we urge you to promptly vote and submit your proxy via the Internet, by telephone, or by mail.

We are holding the Annual Meeting for the following purposes, as more fully described in the accompanying proxy statement:

Our board of directors has fixed the close of business on March 23, 2023 as the record date for the Annual Meeting. Stockholders of record on March 23, 2023 are entitled to notice of and to vote at the Annual Meeting. Further information regarding voting rights and the matters to be voted upon is presented in the accompanying proxy statement.

The accompanying proxy statement and our annual report can be accessed by visiting: www.proxyvote.com. You will be asked to enter the 16-digit control number located on your proxy card.

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT. Whether or not you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, we urge you to submit your vote via the Internet, telephone, or mail as soon as possible to ensure your shares are represented. For additional instructions on voting by telephone or the Internet, please refer to your proxy card. Returning the proxy does not deprive you of your right to attend the Annual Meeting and to vote your shares at the Annual Meeting.

By order of the Board of Directors,

 

Andrew W. Houston

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Chair of the Board

San Francisco, California

April 4, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued)

 

This proxy statement and the enclosed form of proxy are furnished in connection with the solicitation of proxies by our board of directors for use at the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders of Dropbox, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and any postponements, adjournments or continuations thereof (the “Annual Meeting”). The Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 18, 2023 at 9:00 am Pacific Time. The Annual Meeting will be conducted virtually via live audio webcast. You will be able to attend the Annual Meeting virtually by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DBX2023, where you will be able to listen to the meeting live, submit questions and vote online. The Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials (the “Notice”) containing instructions on how to access this proxy statement and our annual report is first being mailed on or about April 4, 2023 to all stockholders entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. The proxy materials and our 2022 annual report can be accessed by following the instructions in the Notice.

The information provided in the “question and answer” format below is for your convenience only and is merely a summary of the information contained in this proxy statement. You should read this entire proxy statement carefully. Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not intended to be incorporated by reference into this proxy statement and references to our website address in this proxy statement are inactive textual references only.

You are being asked to vote on:

Our board of directors recommends a vote:

Holders of our Class A and Class B common stock as of the close of business on March 23, 2023, the record date for the Annual Meeting, may vote at the Annual Meeting. As of the record date, there were 271,962,132 shares of our Class A common stock outstanding and 81,676,431 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding. Our Class A common stock and Class B common stock will vote as a single class on all matters described in this proxy statement for which your vote is being solicited. Stockholders are not permitted to cumulate votes with respect to the election of directors. Each share of Class A common stock is entitled to one vote on each proposal and each share of Class B common stock is entitled to 10 votes on each proposal. Our Class A common stock and Class B common stock are collectively referred to in this proxy statement as our “common stock.”

Registered Stockholders. If shares of our common stock are registered directly in your name with our transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company, N.A., you are considered the stockholder of record with respect to those shares, and the Notice was provided to you directly by us. As the stockholder of record, you have the right to grant your voting proxy directly to the individuals listed on the proxy card or to vote live at the Annual Meeting. Throughout this proxy statement, we refer to these registered stockholders as “stockholders of record.”

Street Name Stockholders. If shares of our common stock are held on your behalf in a brokerage account or by a bank or other nominee, you are considered to be the beneficial owner of shares that are held in “street name,” and the Notice was forwarded to you by your broker or nominee, who is considered the stockholder of record with respect to those shares. As the beneficial owner, you have the right to direct your broker, bank, or other nominee as to how to vote your shares. Beneficial owners are also invited to attend the Annual Meeting. However, since a beneficial owner is not the stockholder of record, you may not vote your shares of our common stock live at the Annual Meeting unless you follow your broker’s procedures for obtaining a legal proxy. If you request a printed copy of our proxy materials by mail, your broker, bank, or other nominee will provide a voting instruction form for you to use. Throughout this proxy statement, we refer to stockholders who hold their shares through a broker, bank, or other nominee as “street name stockholders.”

A quorum is the minimum number of voting power required to be present at the Annual Meeting to properly hold an annual meeting of stockholders and conduct business under our amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law. The presence, virtually or by proxy, of a majority of the voting power of all issued and outstanding shares of our common stock entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting will constitute a quorum at the Annual Meeting. Abstentions, withhold votes, and broker non-votes are counted as shares present and entitled to vote for purposes of determining a quorum.

If you are a stockholder of record, there are several ways to vote:

Even if you plan to attend the Annual Meeting, we recommend that you also vote by proxy so that your vote will be counted if you later decide not to attend the Annual Meeting.

If you are a street name stockholder, you will receive voting instructions from your broker, bank, or other nominee. You must follow the voting instructions provided by your broker, bank, or other nominee in order to direct your broker, bank, or other nominee on how to vote your shares. Street name stockholders should generally be able to vote by returning a voting instruction form, or by telephone or on the Internet. However, the availability of telephone and Internet voting will depend on the voting process of your broker, bank, or other nominee. As discussed above, if you are a street name stockholder, you may not vote your shares live at the Annual Meeting unless you obtain a legal proxy from your broker, bank, or other nominee.

Brokerage firms and other intermediaries holding shares of our common stock in street name for their customers are generally required to vote such shares in the manner directed by their customers. In the absence of timely directions, your broker will have discretion to vote your shares on our sole “routine” matter: the proposal to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. Your broker will not have discretion to vote on any other proposals, which are “non-routine” matters, absent direction from you (and failure to provide instructions on these matters will result in a “broker non-vote”).

Yes. If you are a stockholder of record, you can change your vote or revoke your proxy any time before the Annual Meeting by:

If you are a street name stockholder, your broker, bank, or other nominee can provide you with instructions on how to change your vote.

You will be able to attend the Annual Meeting virtually, submit your questions during the meeting and vote your shares electronically at the meeting by visiting www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/DBX2023. To participate in the Annual Meeting, you will need the control number included on your Notice or proxy card. The Annual Meeting webcast will begin promptly at 9:00 am Pacific Time. We encourage you to access the meeting prior to the start time. Online check-in will begin at 8:45 am Pacific Time, and you should allow ample time for the check-in procedures.

Proxies are solicited by and on behalf of our board of directors. Andrew W. Houston and Timothy Regan have been designated as proxy holders by our board of directors. When proxies are properly dated, executed, and returned, the shares represented by such proxies will be voted at the Annual Meeting in accordance with the instructions of the stockholder. If the proxy is dated and signed, but no specific instructions are given, the shares will be voted in accordance with the recommendations of our board of directors as described above. If any matters not described in this proxy statement are properly presented at the Annual Meeting, the proxy holders will use their own judgment to determine how to vote the shares. If the Annual Meeting is adjourned, the proxy holders can vote the shares on the new Annual Meeting date as well, unless you have properly revoked your proxy, as described above.

GENERAL INFORMATION (continued)

 

In accordance with the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), we have elected to furnish our proxy materials, including this proxy statement and our annual report, primarily via the Internet. The Notice containing instructions on how to access our proxy materials is first being mailed on or about April 4, 2023 to all stockholders entitled to vote at the Annual Meeting. Stockholders may request to receive all future proxy materials in printed form by mail or electronically by e-mail by following the instructions contained in the Notice. We encourage stockholders to take advantage of the availability of our proxy materials on the Internet to help reduce the environmental impact and cost of our annual meetings of stockholders.

Our board of directors is soliciting proxies for use at the Annual Meeting. All expenses associated with this solicitation will be borne by us. We will reimburse brokers or other nominees for reasonable expenses that they incur in sending our proxy materials to you if a broker, bank, or other nominee holds shares of our common stock on your behalf. In addition, our directors and employees may also solicit proxies by telephone, by electronic communication or by other means of communication. Our directors and employees will not be paid any additional compensation for soliciting proxies.

We will announce preliminary voting results at the Annual Meeting. We will also disclose voting results on a Current Report on Form 8-K that we will file with the SEC within four business days after the Annual Meeting. If final voting results are not available to us in time to file a Form 8-K within four business days after the Annual Meeting, we will file a Form 8-K to publish preliminary results and will provide the final results in an amendment to the Form 8-K as soon as they become available.

We have adopted a procedure called “householding,” which the SEC has approved. Under this procedure, we deliver a single copy of the Notice and, if applicable, our proxy materials, to multiple stockholders who share the same address, unless we have received contrary instructions from one or more of such stockholders. This procedure reduces our printing costs, mailing costs and fees. Stockholders who participate in householding will continue to be able to access and receive separate proxy cards. Upon written or oral request, we will deliver promptly a separate copy of the Notice and, if applicable, our proxy materials, to any stockholder at a shared address to which we delivered a single copy of any of these materials. To receive a separate copy, or, if a stockholder is receiving multiple copies, to request that we only send a single copy of the Notice and, if applicable, our proxy materials, such stockholder may contact us at:

Dropbox, Inc.

Attention: Corporate Secretary

1800 Owens Street

San Francisco, California 94158

(415) 857-6800

Street name stockholders may contact their broker, bank, or other nominee to request information about householding.

Stockholders may present proposals for inclusion in our proxy statement and for consideration at next year’s annual meeting of stockholders by submitting their proposals in writing to our Corporate Secretary in a timely manner. For a stockholder proposal to be considered for inclusion in our proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders, our Corporate Secretary must receive the written proposal at our principal executive offices not later than December 6, 2023. In addition, stockholder proposals must comply with the requirements of Rule 14a-8 regarding the inclusion of stockholder proposals in company-sponsored proxy materials. Stockholder proposals should be addressed to:

Dropbox, Inc.

Attention: Corporate Secretary

1800 Owens Street

San Francisco, California 94158

(415) 857-6800

GENERAL INFORMATION (continued)

 

Our amended and restated bylaws also establish an advance notice procedure for stockholders who wish to present a proposal before an annual meeting of stockholders but do not intend for the proposal to be included in our proxy statement. Our amended and restated bylaws provide that the only business that may be conducted at an annual meeting of stockholders is business that is (i) specified in our proxy materials with respect to such annual meeting, (ii) otherwise properly brought before such annual meeting by or at the direction of our board of directors, or (iii) properly brought before such meeting by a stockholder of record entitled to vote at such annual meeting who has delivered timely written notice to our Corporate Secretary, which notice must contain the information specified in our amended and restated bylaws. To be timely for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders, our Corporate Secretary must receive the written notice at our principal executive offices:

In the event that we hold the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders more than 30 days before or more than 60 days after the one-year anniversary of the Annual Meeting, a notice of a stockholder proposal that is not intended to be included in our proxy statement must be received no earlier than the close of business on the 120^th day before the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders and no later than the close of business on the later of the following two dates:

If a stockholder who has notified us of his, her, or its intention to present a proposal at an annual meeting of stockholders does not appear to present his, her, or its proposal at such annual meeting, we are not required to present the proposal for a vote at such annual meeting.

Holders of 1% of our fully diluted capitalization for at least 12 months prior to the submission of the recommendation may recommend director candidates for consideration by our nominating and corporate governance committee. Any such recommendations should include the nominee’s name and qualifications for membership on our board of directors and should be directed to our Corporate Secretary or legal department at the address set forth above. For additional information regarding stockholder recommendations for director candidates, see the section titled “Board of Directors and Corporate Governance—Stockholder Recommendations and Nominations to the Board of Directors.”

Our amended and restated bylaws permit stockholders to nominate directors for election at an annual meeting of stockholders. To nominate a director, the stockholder must provide the information required by our amended and restated bylaws. In addition, the stockholder must give timely notice to our Corporate Secretary in accordance with our amended and restated bylaws, which, in general, require that the notice be received by our Corporate Secretary within the time periods described above under the section titled “Stockholder Proposals” for stockholder proposals that are not intended to be included in a proxy statement.

In addition, a stockholder who desires to nominate director candidates for election at the 2024 Annual Meeting, which is expected to be held in or about May 2024, must comply with the requirements of newly enacted Rule 14a-19 by notifying our Corporate Secretary with regard to the intent to solicit proxies in support of director nominees (other than our nominees) as required by Rule 14a-19 no later than March 19, 2024. Please note that the notice requirement under Rule 14a-19 is in addition to the applicable notice requirements under the advance notice provisions of our amended and restated bylaws as described above.

A copy of our amended and restated bylaws is available via the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. You may also contact our Corporate Secretary at the address set forth above for a copy of the relevant bylaw provisions regarding the requirements for making stockholder proposals and nominating director candidates.

Our business affairs are managed under the direction of our board of directors. As of March 23, 2023, our board of directors consisted of eight directors, seven of whom qualified as “independent” under the listing standards of the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”).

Until the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, we will have a single class of directors who are each elected for one-year terms and until their successors are duly elected and qualified. When the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, we will have a classified board of directors consisting of three classes of approximately equal size, each serving staggered three-year terms. Our directors will be assigned by the then-current board of directors to a class.

In determining the composition of our board, our board of directors and nominating and corporate governance committee are committed to ensuring that our directors maintain effective and independent oversight of our business and that they capably represent the interests of our stockholders. As part of this commitment, our nominating and corporate governance committee considers the diversity of director nominees with respect to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, viewpoints and perspectives, experience, and backgrounds. The following charts provide summary information about our director nominees with respect to diversity, based on self-identification, independence, and tenure. For additional information regarding our criteria for evaluating director nominees, see the section titled “Considerations in Evaluating Director Nominees.”

 

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The following provides summary information about each of our director nominees as of March 23, 2023:

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Under the listing rules of Nasdaq, independent directors must comprise a majority of a listed company’s board of directors. In addition, Nasdaq rules require that, subject to specified exceptions, each member of a listed company’s audit, talent and compensation, and nominating and corporate governance committees be independent. Under Nasdaq rules, a director will only qualify as an “independent director” if, in the opinion of the company’s board of directors, the director does not have a relationship that would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director.

Our board of directors has undertaken a review of the independence of each director. Based on information provided by each director concerning his or her background, employment, and affiliations, our board of directors has determined that Dr. Jacobs, Messrs. Blair, Parasnis and Seibel, and Mss. Campbell, Mathew and Peacock do not have a relationship that would interfere with the exercise of independent judgment in carrying out the responsibilities of a director and that each of these directors is “independent” as that term is defined under Nasdaq listing rules. In making these determinations, our board of directors considered the current and prior relationships that each non-employee director has with our company and all other facts and circumstances our board of directors deemed relevant in determining their independence, including the beneficial ownership of our capital stock by each non-employee director, and the transactions involving them, if any, described in the section titled “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.”

Mr. Houston currently serves as both the chair of our board of directors and as our Chief Executive Officer. As our co-founder, Mr. Houston is best positioned to identify strategic priorities, lead critical discussion, and execute our business plans.

Our board of directors has adopted Corporate Governance Guidelines that provide that one of our independent directors should serve as our lead independent director at any time when the chair of our board of directors is not independent, including when our Chief Executive Officer serves as the chair of our board of directors. Because Mr. Houston is our chair and is not an “independent” director as defined in Nasdaq’s listing rules, our board of directors has determined that it is advisable and in the best interests of stockholders to have a lead independent director to, among other things, preside over meetings of the independent directors and help set the agenda for Board meetings. Mr. Blair has served as our lead independent director since March 2020. As our lead independent director, Mr. Blair presides over periodic meetings of our independent directors, serves as a liaison between Mr. Houston and our independent directors, and performs such additional duties as our board of directors may otherwise determine and delegate. The lead independent director’s responsibilities include:

Only independent directors serve on the audit committee, the talent and compensation committee, and the nominating and corporate governance committee of our board of directors. Our independent directors meet at least quarterly in executive sessions chaired by the lead independent director, which include discussions and recommendations regarding guidance to be provided to the Chief Executive Officer, and such topics as the independent directors may determine.

As a result of the board of directors’ committee system and the existence of a majority of independent directors, combined with a strong lead independent director with significant responsibilities and the company’s robust corporate governance policies and procedures, the board of directors believes it maintains effective oversight of our business operations, including independent oversight of our financial statements and risk management, executive compensation, selection of director candidates, and corporate governance programs. We believe that the leadership structure of our board of directors, including Mr. Blair’s role as lead independent director, as well as the strong independent committees of our board of directors is appropriate and enhances our board of directors’ ability to effectively carry out its roles and responsibilities on behalf of our stockholders. Mr. Houston’s combined role

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leverages his deep involvement with the company’s business, and his history as a co-founder of the company with knowledge of the company’s development and culture enables strong leadership, creates clear accountability and enhances our ability to communicate our message and strategy clearly and consistently to stockholders.

Our board of directors has established an audit committee, a talent and compensation committee, and a nominating and corporate governance committee. The composition and responsibilities of each of the committees of our board of directors is described below. Members will serve on these committees until their resignation or until as otherwise determined by our board of directors.

Our audit committee consists of Mr. Blair and Mss. Campbell and Mathew, with Mr. Blair serving as chair. Each of the members of the audit committee meets the requirements for independence of audit committee members under Nasdaq listing rules and SEC rules and regulations and also meets the financial literacy and sophistication requirements of the Nasdaq listing rules. Our board of directors has determined that Mr. Blair and Ms. Mathew are audit committee financial experts within the meaning of Item 407(d) of Regulation S-K. Our audit committee is responsible for, among other things:

Our audit committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and the listing standards of Nasdaq. A copy of the charter for our audit committee is available on our website at investors.dropbox.com. During 2022, our audit committee held six meetings.

Our talent and compensation committee consists of Mss. Peacock and Mathew and Messrs. Parasnis and Seibel, with Ms. Mathew serving as chair. Mr. Parasnis was appointed to the talent and compensation committee in March 2022. Each member of the talent and compensation committee meets the requirements for independence for talent and compensation committee members under the listing standards of Nasdaq. Each member of our talent and compensation committee is also a non-employee director, as defined pursuant to Rule 16b-3 promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”), or Rule 16b-3. Our talent and compensation committee is responsible for, among other things:

Our talent and compensation committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable rules and regulations of the SEC and the listing standards of Nasdaq. A copy of the charter for our talent and compensation committee is available on our website at investors.dropbox.com. During 2022, our talent and compensation committee held four meetings.

Our nominating and corporate governance committee consists of Ms. Campbell and Dr. Jacobs, with Dr. Jacobs serving as chair. Each member of the nominating and corporate governance committee meets the requirements for independence under the listing standards of Nasdaq. Our nominating and corporate governance committee is responsible for, among other things:

Our nominating and corporate governance committee operates under a written charter that satisfies the applicable Nasdaq listing standards. A copy of the charter for our nominating and corporate governance committee is available on our website at investors.dropbox.com. During 2022, our nominating and corporate governance committee held three meetings.

During our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, our board of directors held eight meetings (including regularly scheduled and special meetings), and each director attended at least 75% of the aggregate of (i) the total number of meetings of our board of directors held during the period for which he or she has been a director and (ii) the total number of meetings held by all committees of our board of directors on which he or she served during the periods that he or she served.

Although we do not have a formal policy regarding attendance by members of our board of directors at annual meetings of stockholders, we strongly encourage, but do not require, our directors to attend. All directors who then served on the board attended our 2022 annual meeting of our stockholders.

None of the members of our talent and compensation committee is or has been an officer or employee of our company. None of our executive officers currently serves, or in the past year has served, as a member of the board of directors or talent and compensation committee (or other board committee performing equivalent functions) of any entity that has one or more of its executive officers serving on our board of directors or talent and compensation committee.

Our nominating and corporate governance committee uses a variety of methods, including engaging the services of outside consultants and search firms, to identify and evaluate director nominees. In its evaluation of director candidates, our nominating and corporate governance committee considers the current size and composition, organization, and governance of our board of directors and the needs of our board of directors and the respective committees of our board of directors. Some of the qualifications that our nominating and corporate governance committee considers include, without limitation, issues of character, integrity, judgment, business experience, and diversity, and with respect to diversity, such factors as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, differences in professional background, education, skill and other individual qualities and attributes that contribute to the total mix of viewpoints and experience represented on the board of directors, potential conflicts of interest and other commitments. Nominees must also have the highest personal and professional ethics and the ability to offer advice and guidance to our Chief Executive Officer and other members of management based on proven achievement and leadership in the companies or institutions with which they are affiliated. Director candidates must understand the fiduciary responsibilities that are required of a member of our board of directors and have sufficient time available, in the judgment of our nominating and corporate governance committee, to perform all board of director and applicable committee responsibilities. Members of our board of directors are expected to prepare for, attend, and participate in all board of directors and applicable committee meetings. Our nominating and corporate governance committee may also consider such other factors as it may deem, from time to time, are in our and our stockholders’ best interests.

The nominating and corporate governance committee considers the suitability of each director candidate, including current directors, in light of the current size and composition of our board. Although we do not maintain a specific policy with respect to board diversity, our board of directors believes that our board of directors should be a diverse body, and our nominating and corporate governance committee considers a broad range of backgrounds and experiences. In making determinations regarding nominations of directors, our nominating and corporate governance committee may take into account the benefits of diverse viewpoints. After completing its review and evaluation of director candidates, including incumbent directors, our nominating and corporate governance committee recommends to our full board of directors the director nominees for selection.

The effectiveness of our board of directors and its committees is critical to our success. To maintain and improve that effectiveness, our nominating and corporate governance committee, in partnership with our lead independent director, oversees the design and implementation of an annual assessment of our board and its committees.

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Our board of directors engaged a board governance consultant (the “Consultant”) to help enhance this assessment process. The Consultant prepared a written survey in close partnership with our nominating and governance committee, in-house legal team, and lead independent director. This survey contained a mix of statements and open-ended questions. The Consultant then consolidated this feedback and led a discussion with the board regarding results and opportunities to increase effectiveness.

Our board of directors and its committees implement improvements and take further actions, as appropriate, based on opportunities identified during its evaluation.

Our nominating and corporate governance committee will consider director candidates recommended by stockholders holding at least one percent (1%) of the fully diluted capitalization of Dropbox, Inc. continuously for at least 12 months prior to the date of the submission of the recommendation, so long as such recommendations comply with our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws, and applicable laws, rules and regulations, including those promulgated by the SEC. Our nominating and corporate governance committee will evaluate such recommendations in accordance with its charter, our amended and restated bylaws and our policies and procedures for director candidates, as well as the regular director nominee criteria described above. This process is designed to ensure that our board of directors includes members with diverse backgrounds, skills, and experience, including appropriate financial and other expertise relevant to our business. Eligible stockholders wishing to recommend a candidate for nomination should contact our Corporate Secretary or legal department in writing. Such recommendations must include information about the candidate, a statement of support by the recommending stockholder, evidence of the recommending stockholder’s ownership of our capital stock, a signed letter from the candidate confirming willingness to serve on our board of directors and any additional information required by our amended and restated bylaws. Our nominating and corporate governance committee has discretion to decide which individuals to recommend for nomination as directors.

Under our amended and restated bylaws, stockholders may also directly nominate persons for our board of directors. Any nomination must comply with the requirements set forth in our amended and restated bylaws and should be sent in writing to our Corporate Secretary at Dropbox, Inc., 1800 Owens Street San Francisco, California 94158. To be timely for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders, nominations must be received by our Corporate Secretary observing the same deadlines for stockholder proposals discussed above under “What is the deadline to propose actions for consideration at next year’s annual meeting of stockholders or to nominate individuals to serve as directors? – Stockholder Proposals.”

Interested parties wishing to communicate with non-management members of our board of directors may do so by writing and mailing the correspondence to our Corporate Secretary at Dropbox, Inc., 1800 Owens Street, San Francisco, California 94158. Each communication should set forth (i) the name and address of the stockholder, as it appears on our books, and if the shares of our common stock are held by a broker, bank or nominee, the name and address of the beneficial owner of such shares, and (ii) the class and number of shares of our common stock that are owned of record by the record holder and beneficially by the beneficial owner.

Our Corporate Secretary or legal department, in consultation with appropriate members of our board of directors as necessary, will review all incoming communications and, if appropriate, such communications will be forwarded to the appropriate member or members of our board of directors, or if none are specified, to the chair of our board of directors.

This procedure does not apply to (i) communications to non-management directors from our officers or directors who are stockholders or (ii) stockholder proposals submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-8 under the Exchange Act, which are discussed further in the section titled “What is the deadline to propose actions for consideration at next year’s annual meeting of stockholders or to nominate individuals to serve as directors?—Stockholder Proposals” described above in this proxy statement.

Our board of directors has adopted Corporate Governance Guidelines that address items such as the qualifications and responsibilities of our directors and director candidates, including independence standards, and corporate governance policies and standards applicable to us in general. In addition, our board of directors has adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics that

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applies to all of our employees, officers, independent contractors and directors, including our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and other executive and senior financial officers. The full text of our Corporate Governance Guidelines and our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is posted on our website at investors.dropbox.com. We will post amendments to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics or any waivers of our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for directors and executive officers on the same website or in filings under the Exchange Act.

Risk is inherent with every business, and we face a number of risks, including strategic, financial, business and operational, legal and compliance, and reputational, in the pursuit and achievement of our strategic objectives. We have designed and implemented processes to manage risk in our operations. Management is responsible for the day-to-day oversight and management of these risks, while our board of directors, as a whole and assisted by its committees, has responsibility for the oversight of our risk management framework, which is designed to identify, assess, and manage risks to which our company is exposed, as well as to foster a corporate culture of integrity. Consistent with this approach, our board and its committees regularly review our strategic and operational risks in the context of discussions with management, question and answer sessions, and reports from the management team, outside advisors, and consultants.

In addition, our board has designated standing committees with oversight of certain categories of risk and receives regular reports on significant risk-related committee activities at full board meetings. Delegated committee oversight of specific risks is below.

Our board of directors believes its current leadership structure supports the risk oversight function of the board.

Being Worthy of Trust is our guiding value and serves as the foundation of our relationship with the millions of people and businesses around the world who rely on Dropbox to protect their most valuable content. Protecting our users’ information through robust data privacy and cybersecurity programs is one of our top priorities. Effective governance of these programs is a priority for our board.

Our audit committee oversees programs and policies related to cybersecurity risks and initiatives. Our audit committee is comprised entirely of independent directors who evaluate these issues at least quarterly. The board of directors also regularly discusses these issues at least annually and considers them closely both from a risk management perspective and as part of Dropbox’s business strategy.

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We have also established a cross-functional leadership team to oversee our information security and privacy programs and practices, as well as to identify and mitigate security and privacy risks. This team, which reports periodically to the board of directors, audit committee, and members of our senior leadership team, includes senior leaders from our legal, privacy, information security, information technology, infrastructure, and compliance teams, including our Chief Privacy Officer, VP, Security & Platform Abuse, and Chief Legal Officer.

With oversight and guidance provided by the cross-functional leadership team, our information security and privacy teams continually refine our practices to address emerging security risks and changes in privacy regulations.

We have also established an Office of Data Protection Officer (the “ODPO”) to provide independent oversight of our privacy program and guidance on privacy issues; the ODPO is headed by the VP, Data Protection Officer and acts as the single point of contact for privacy-related requests for users subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, as well as for regulatory authorities. The ODPO reports periodically to management, the board of directors, and the audit committee on privacy risks to provide an independent assessment of our privacy program.

We also have a privacy policy that describes how we collect, use, store, share, and protect customer data, as well as how customers can access and manage their personal data. We are committed to upholding the legal protections safeguarding the privacy of our customers’ data as well as outlining our policies and practices pertaining to government requests for customer data; as part of that commitment, we have publicly disclosed our guiding principles in responding to government requests and, since 2012, we have published quantitative data on government requests that we received.

Several of our security and privacy management systems are independently examined and/or certified according to internationally recognized standards:

All employees are required to complete annual information security and privacy training and to comply with our information security and privacy policies, which are reviewed and updated annually. They also receive ongoing security awareness education via informational emails, talks and presentations, and resources available on our intranet.

At Dropbox, our mission is to create a more enlightened way of working. We believe Dropbox’s long-term success will be strengthened by helping to create a more equitable and sustainable world for our stakeholders.

We are committed to conducting business in an ethical and transparent way, and to being accountable to our customers, our employees, our stockholders, the communities in which we operate, and all our other stakeholders for the manner in which we run our business.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

(continued)

 

The committees of our board of directors play important roles in overseeing our ESG matters:

Multiple teams, with oversight from our board of directors and its committees, play a role in executing Dropbox’s ESG strategy and programs. Our Social Impact and Sustainability team leads Dropbox’s internal ESG working group, which reports to members of our senior leadership team who are responsible for overseeing the direction of our ESG program.

We have adopted a compensation policy for our non-employee directors. Under this director compensation policy, each non-employee director receives the cash and equity compensation for board services described below. We also reimburse our non-employee directors for reasonable, customary, and documented travel expenses to board meetings. The director compensation policy has been developed in consultation with Compensia, Inc., or Compensia, an independent national compensation consulting firm. Compensia provided recommendations and competitive non-employee director compensation data and analyses. We considered and discussed these recommendations and data and considered the specific duties and committee responsibilities of particular directors. We adopted Compensia’s recommendations when we initially adopted the director compensation policy in connection with our initial public offering, and we believe the policy provides our non-employee directors with reasonable and appropriate compensation that is commensurate with the services they provide and competitive with compensation paid by our peer group companies to their non-employee directors. Compensia has also advised on subsequent amendments to the policy. Our director compensation policy follows the principles listed below.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

(continued)

 

Our director compensation policy consists of a cash component and an equity component. There are no per-meeting attendance fees for attending board meetings. Directors who are also our employees receive no additional compensation for their service as directors. The components of our director compensation policy, as currently in effect, are described below.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

(continued)

 

The following table provides information regarding compensation of our non-employee directors for their service as directors, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. Directors who are also our employees receive no additional compensation for their service as directors. During 2022, Mr. Houston was an employee and executive officer of the company and therefore, did not receive compensation as a director. See “Executive Compensation” for additional information regarding Mr. Houston’s compensation.

The following table lists all outstanding equity awards held by non-employee directors as of December 31, 2022:

As of March 23, 2023, our board of directors consisted of eight directors. Until the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, we will have a single class of directors with each director elected for a one-year term and until their successor is duly elected and qualified, or until their earlier resignation or removal.

Our nominating and corporate governance committee has recommended, and our board of directors has approved, Andrew W. Houston, Donald W. Blair, Lisa Campbell, Paul E. Jacobs, Sara Mathew, Abhay Parasnis, Karen Peacock and Michael Seibel as nominees for election as directors at the Annual Meeting. Each of the nominees is an incumbent director. If elected, each of the nominees will serve as directors until the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders and until their successors are duly elected and qualified. For information concerning the nominees, please see “Board of Directors and Corporate Governance.” We expect that each of Dr. Jacobs, Messrs. Houston, Blair, Parasnis and Seibel, and Mss. Campbell, Mathew and Peacock will accept such nomination; however, in the event that a director nominee is unable or declines to serve as a director at the time of the Annual Meeting, the proxies will be voted for any nominee designated by our board of directors to fill such vacancy.

If you are a stockholder of record and you sign your proxy card or vote by telephone or over the Internet but do not give instructions with respect to the voting of directors, your shares will be voted “FOR” the election of Dr. Jacobs, Messrs. Houston, Blair, Parasnis and Seibel, and Mss. Campbell, Mathew and Peacock. If you are a street name stockholder and you do not give voting instructions to your broker or nominee, your broker will leave your shares unvoted on this matter.

Each director is elected by a plurality of the votes of the shares present virtually or represented by proxy at the meeting and entitled to vote on the election of directors at the Annual Meeting. “Plurality” means that the eight nominees who receive the largest number of votes cast “For” such nominees are elected as directors. As a result, any shares not voted “For” a particular nominee (whether as a result of a withhold vote or a broker non-vote) will not be counted in such nominee’s favor and will have no effect on the outcome of the election.

Our audit committee has appointed Ernst & Young LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, to audit our consolidated financial statements for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. Ernst & Young LLP has served as our independent registered public accounting firm since 2013.

At the Annual Meeting, our stockholders are being asked to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. Our audit committee is submitting the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP to our stockholders because we value our stockholders’ views on our independent registered public accounting firm and as a matter of good corporate governance. Notwithstanding the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP, and even if our stockholders ratify the appointment, our audit committee, in its discretion, may appoint another independent registered public accounting firm at any time during our fiscal year if our audit committee believes that such a change would be in the best interests of our company and our stockholders. If our stockholders do not ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP, our board of directors may reconsider the appointment. Representatives of Ernst & Young LLP will be present at the Annual Meeting, and they will have an opportunity to make a statement and will be available to respond to appropriate questions from our stockholders.

The following table presents fees for professional audit services and other services rendered to our company by Ernst & Young LLP for our fiscal years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021.

In our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, there were no other professional services provided by Ernst & Young LLP, other than those listed above, that would have required our audit committee to consider their compatibility with maintaining the independence of Ernst & Young LLP.

Our audit committee has established a policy governing our use of the services of our independent registered public accounting firm. Under this policy, our audit committee is required to pre-approve all services performed by our independent registered public accounting firm in order to ensure that the provision of such services does not impair the public accountants’ independence. All services provided by Ernst & Young LLP for our fiscal years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022 were pre-approved by our audit committee.

The ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2023 requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the voting power of the shares of our common stock present virtually or by proxy at the Annual Meeting and entitled to vote thereon. Abstentions will have the effect of a vote against this proposal, and broker non-votes will have no effect.

The audit committee is a committee of the board of directors comprised solely of independent directors as required by Nasdaq listing standards and SEC rules and regulations. The composition of the audit committee, the attributes of its members and the responsibilities of the audit committee, as reflected in its charter, are intended to be in accordance with applicable requirements for corporate audit committees. With respect to Dropbox’s financial reporting process, Dropbox’s management is responsible for (1) establishing and maintaining internal controls and (2) preparing Dropbox’s consolidated financial statements. Dropbox’s independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young LLP (“Ernst & Young”), is responsible for performing an independent audit of Dropbox’s consolidated financial statements and the effectiveness of the company’s internal control over financial reporting. It is the responsibility of the audit committee to oversee these activities. It is not the responsibility of the audit committee to prepare Dropbox’s financial statements. These are the fundamental responsibilities of management. In the performance of its oversight function, the audit committee has:

Based on the audit committee’s review and discussions with management and Ernst & Young, the audit committee recommended to the board of directors that the audited financial statements be included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 for filing with the SEC.

Respectfully submitted by the members of the audit committee of the board of directors:

Donald W. Blair (Chair)

Lisa Campbell

Sara Mathew

This report of the audit committee is required by the SEC and, in accordance with the SEC’s rules, will not be deemed to be part of or incorporated by reference by any general statement incorporating by reference this proxy statement into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (“Securities Act”), or under the Exchange Act, except to the extent that we specifically incorporate this information by reference, and will not otherwise be deemed “soliciting material” or “filed” under either the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.

In accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) and SEC rules, we are providing our stockholders with the opportunity to vote to approve, on an advisory or non-binding basis, the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed pursuant to Section 14A of the Exchange Act. This proposal, commonly known as a “Say-on-Pay” proposal, gives our stockholders the opportunity to express their views on our named executive officers’ compensation as a whole. This vote is not intended to address any specific item of compensation or any specific named executive officer, but rather the overall compensation of all of our named executive officers and the philosophy, policies and practices described in this proxy statement.

The Say-on-Pay vote is advisory, and therefore is not binding on us, our talent and compensation committee, or our board of directors. The Say-on-Pay vote will, however, provide information to us regarding investor sentiment about our executive compensation philosophy, policies and practices, which our talent and compensation committee will be able to consider when determining executive compensation for the remainder of the current fiscal year and beyond. Our board of directors and our talent and compensation committee value the opinions of our stockholders. To the extent there is any significant vote against the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in this proxy statement, we will endeavor to communicate with stockholders to better understand the concerns that influenced the vote and consider our stockholders’ concerns, and our talent and compensation committee will evaluate whether any actions are necessary to address those concerns.

We believe that the information provided in the section titled “Executive Compensation,” and in particular the information discussed in the section titled “Executive Compensation—Compensation Philosophy,” demonstrates that our executive compensation program was designed appropriately and is working to ensure management’s interests are aligned with our stockholders’ interests to support long-term value creation. Accordingly, we ask our stockholders to vote “FOR” the following resolution at the Annual Meeting:

“RESOLVED, that the stockholders approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation paid to our named executive officers, as disclosed in the proxy statement for the Annual Meeting pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, including the compensation discussion and analysis, compensation tables and narrative discussion and other related disclosure.”

The approval, on an advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers, requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the voting power of the shares of our common stock present virtually or by proxy at the Annual Meeting and entitled to vote thereon to be approved. Abstentions will have the effect of a vote against this proposal, and broker non-votes will have no effect.

As an advisory vote, the result of this proposal is non-binding. Although the vote is non-binding, our board of directors and our talent and compensation committee value the opinions of our stockholders and will consider the outcome of the vote when making future compensation decisions for our named executive officers.

We currently hold our advisory vote on executive compensation annually. Accordingly, the next advisory vote on executive compensation will be held at our 2024 annual meeting of stockholders.

The following table identifies certain information about our executive officers as of March 23, 2023. Our executive officers are appointed by, and serve at the discretion of, our board of directors. There are no family relationships among any of our directors or executive officers.

For Mr. Houston’s biography, see “Nominees for Director.”

Timothy Regan. Timothy Regan, CPA, has served as Dropbox’s Chief Financial Officer since September 2020. Previously, he served as Dropbox’s Chief Accounting Officer from December 2016 to September 2020. From January 2011 to December 2016, he served as VP Finance Controller at Pandora Media, Inc., or Pandora. Prior to joining Pandora, he held senior positions at Dolby Laboratories, Inc., and Ernst and Young LLP. Mr. Regan received his Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Georgetown University in 1999 and his Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business, in 2011.

Bart E. Volkmer. Mr. Volkmer has served as our Chief Legal Officer since January 2020. From June 2016 to January 2020, Mr. Volkmer served as our General Counsel and from August 2011 to June 2016, Mr. Volkmer served as our Head of Litigation & Regulatory. Prior to joining Dropbox, Mr. Volkmer practiced law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm, from 2003 to 2011, where he counseled early-stage and established technology companies. Mr. Volkmer holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and a B.A. in English from Creighton University.

This Compensation Discussion and Analysis describes the material elements of our executive compensation program during 2022. It also provides an overview of our executive compensation philosophy, including our principal compensation policies and practices. Finally, it analyzes how and why our talent and compensation committee arrived at the specific compensation decisions for our executive officers, including our named executive officers in 2022, and discusses the key factors that our talent and compensation committee considered in determining their compensation.

Our named executive officers for 2022 were:

Dropbox is the one place to keep life organized and keep work moving.

We were founded in 2007 with a simple idea: Life would be a lot better if everyone could access their most important information anytime from any device. Over the past decade, we’ve largely accomplished that mission by building tools to help people work from anywhere—and along the way we recognized that for most of our users, sharing and collaborating on the Dropbox platform was even more valuable than storing files.

Our market opportunity grew as we’ve expanded from keeping files in sync to keeping teams in sync. Today, we are well-positioned to reimagine the way work gets done. We're focusing on reducing the inordinate amount of time and energy the world spends on “work about work”—tedious tasks like searching for content, switching between applications, and managing workflows. We believe the need for our platform will continue to grow as teams become more fluid and global, and content is increasingly fragmented across incompatible tools and devices. The Dropbox platform breaks down silos by centralizing the flow of information between the products and services our users prefer, even if they’re not our own. In a world where using technology at work can be fragmented and distracting, the Dropbox platform makes it easy to focus on the work that matters.

The popularity of our platform allows us to scale rapidly and efficiently. We’ve built a thriving global business with 17.77 million paying users as of December 31, 2022.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

 

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

Our talent and compensation committee evaluates our executive compensation program on a regular basis to ensure that it is consistent with our short-term and long-term goals given the dynamic nature of our business and the competitive market in which we compete for executive talent. The following summarizes our executive compensation program and related policies and practices:

Our executive compensation program is guided by our overarching philosophy of paying for demonstrable performance. Consistent with this philosophy, we have designed our executive compensation program to achieve the following primary objectives:

We believe our executive compensation program is reasonable, competitive, and appropriately balances the goals of attracting, motivating, rewarding, and retaining our executive officers with the goal of aligning their interests with those of our stockholders. To achieve this alignment and to motivate and reward individual initiative and effort, a substantial portion of our executive officers’ target annual total direct compensation opportunity is both variable in nature and “at-risk.”

We emphasize variable compensation that appropriately rewards our executive officers through two separate compensation elements:

These variable pay elements are intended to result in a substantial portion of our executive officers’ annual target total direct compensation being contingent (rather than fixed) in nature, with the amounts ultimately payable subject to variability above or below target levels commensurate with our actual performance.

We believe that this design provides balanced incentives for our executive officers to drive financial performance and long-term growth. Our talent and compensation committee regularly evaluates the relationship between the reported values of the equity awards granted to our executive officers and the amount of realizable and realized value from such awards in subsequent years.

The talent and compensation committee discharges many of the responsibilities of our board of directors relating to the compensation of our executives and non-employee directors. The talent and compensation committee has overall responsibility for overseeing our compensation and benefits policies generally, and overseeing and evaluating the compensation plans, policies and practices applicable to our Chief Executive Officer and other executive officers.

The talent and compensation committee makes all final decisions regarding the compensation of our Chief Executive Officer and our other executive officers.

In carrying out its responsibilities, the talent and compensation committee evaluates our compensation policies and practices with a focus on the degree to which these policies and practices reflect our executive compensation philosophy, develops strategies and makes decisions that it believes further our philosophy or align with developments in executive compensation practices, and reviews the performance of our executive officers.

The talent and compensation committee’s authority, duties, and responsibilities are further described in its charter, which is reviewed annually and revised and updated as warranted. The charter is available on our investor relations website at investors.dropbox.com.

We also formed a stock committee, which is currently composed of our Chief Financial Officer, our Chief People Officer, and a non-employee director appointed by our talent and compensation committee. The stock committee has authority to grant equity awards to (a) employees who are not executive officers and (b) consultants subject to certain limitations established from time to time by the talent and compensation committee.

The talent and compensation committee engages an external compensation consultant to assist the committee by providing information, analysis, and other advice relating to our executive compensation program and the decisions resulting from its annual executive compensation review. The compensation consultant reports directly to the talent and compensation committee and its chair and serves at the discretion of the talent and compensation committee, which reviews the engagement annually.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

For 2022, the talent and compensation committee retained Compensia to serve as its compensation advisor to advise on executive and director compensation matters, including competitive market pay practices for our executive officers, and data analysis and selection of the compensation peer group.

During 2022, Compensia attended talent and compensation committee meetings and provided the following services:

Compensia did not provide any services to us other than the consulting services to the talent and compensation committee. The talent and compensation committee regularly reviews the objectivity and independence of the advice provided by its compensation consultant on executive compensation matters. The talent and compensation committee has evaluated Compensia’s engagement, and based on the six factors for assessing independence and identifying potential conflicts of interest that are set forth in Rule 10C-1(b)(4) of the Exchange Act, Rule 5605(d)(3)(D) of the Nasdaq Marketplace Rules, and such other factors as were deemed relevant under the circumstances, has determined that its relationship with Compensia and the work of Compensia on behalf of the talent and compensation committee did not raise any conflict of interest, and that Compensia is independent as defined in Rule 5605(a)(2) of the Nasdaq Marketplace Rules.

In discharging its responsibilities, the talent and compensation committee also works with members of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer. Our management assists the talent and compensation committee by providing information on corporate and individual performance, competitive market data, and management’s perspective and recommendations on compensation matters.

Typically, our Chief Executive Officer makes recommendations to the talent and compensation committee regarding compensation matters, including adjustments to annual cash compensation, long-term equity incentive compensation opportunities, and program structures, for our executive officers, except with respect to his own compensation. At the beginning of each year, our Chief Executive Officer reviews the performance of our other executive officers, including our other named executive officers, based on such individual’s level of success in accomplishing the business objectives established for him or her for the prior year and their overall performance during that year, and then shares these evaluations with, and makes recommendations to, the talent and compensation committee for each element of compensation as described above.

The talent and compensation committee reviews and discusses these recommendations and proposals with our Chief Executive Officer and uses them as one factor in determining and approving the compensation for our executive officers.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

Our Chief Executive Officer also attends meetings of our board of directors and the talent and compensation committee at which executive compensation matters are addressed, except with respect to discussions involving his own compensation. Decisions with respect to our Chief Executive Officer’s compensation are made by our talent and compensation committee, which is comprised entirely of independent members of our board of directors.

For purposes of assessing our executive compensation against the competitive market, the talent and compensation committee reviews and considers the compensation levels and practices of a select group of peer companies. This compensation peer group consists of technology companies that are similar to us in terms of revenue, market capitalization, geographical location, and industry sector.

The companies in the compensation peer group for 2022 were approved in August 2021 on the basis of their similarity to us, as determined using the following criteria, each as of June 2021:

In selecting the 2022 compensation peer group, we chose companies that resulted in us being near the median of the group as of August 2021, in terms of both revenue and market capitalization.

The compensation practices of the compensation peer group were the primary guide used by the talent and compensation committee in 2022 to compare the competitiveness of each compensation element and target total direct compensation (base salary, target annual cash bonus opportunities, and long-term equity incentive compensation).

To analyze the compensation practices of our compensation peer group, Compensia gathered data from public filings of the peer group companies, as well as from the Radford Global Technology Survey. This market data was then used as a reference point for the talent and compensation committee to assess our current compensation levels in the course of its deliberations on compensation forms and amounts. The talent and compensation committee does not engage in formal benchmarking against other companies’ compensation programs or practices to establish our compensation levels or make specific compensation recommendations with respect to our executive officers, including our named executive officers.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

The talent and compensation committee reviews our compensation peer group each year and adjusts its composition if warranted, taking into account changes in both our business and the businesses of the companies in the peer group.

We review the base salary levels, annual cash bonus opportunities, and long-term equity incentive compensation opportunities of our executive officers and all related performance criteria at the beginning of each year, or more frequently as warranted.

We do not establish a specific target for formulating the target total direct compensation opportunities of our executive officers, including our named executive officers.

In making decisions about the compensation of our executive officers, the talent and compensation committee relies primarily on its general experience and subjective considerations of various factors, including the following:

These factors provide the framework for compensation decision-making for each executive officer. No single factor is determinative in setting compensation levels, nor is the impact of any individual factor on the determination of pay levels quantifiable.

We do not weight these factors in any predetermined manner, nor do we apply any formulas in developing our compensation recommendations. The members of the talent and compensation committee consider all of this information in light of their individual experience, knowledge of management, knowledge of the competitive market, knowledge of each executive officer, and business judgment in making their recommendations.

In addition, the talent and compensation committee considered feedback from our stockholders and the result of our most recent Say-on-Pay vote. Our fiscal 2022 Say-on-Pay vote reflected 99.0% support from our stockholders, based on the percentage of the stockholder votes received. The talent and compensation committee believes this indicates that our stockholders support the philosophy, strategy, objectives, and administration of our executive compensation programs.

We also consider the potential risks in our business when designing and administering our executive compensation program, and we believe our balanced approach to performance measurement and pay delivery serves to avoid misaligned incentives for individuals to undertake excessive or inappropriate risk.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

In 2022, the principal elements of our executive compensation program, and the purposes for each element, were as follows:

Our primary focus in compensating executive officers is on the longer-term and performance-based elements of target total direct compensation. Under our 2022 executive compensation program, approximately 75% of target total direct compensation to our named executive officers (excluding our CEO) was variable in the form of annual cash bonus and long-term equity incentive compensation. Our CEO’s mix of pay is weighted equally between base salary and annual bonus. Mr. Houston does not receive annual equity awards due to his significant holdings as a co-founder and the “Co-Founder Grant” (in the form of a restricted stock award) he received in December 2017 prior to our IPO. Details of Mr. Houston’s Co-Founder Grant are further described in “Co-Founder Grant” below. In addition, Mr. Young did not receive an equity award in 2022 due to an equity award he received in December 2020, which delivers value only if we achieved certain stock price goals during the term of the award. Mr. Young’s award granted in connection with his promotion to President is further described in “Performance Achievement of Mr. Young’s Performance RSA” below.

 

We use base salary to provide our executive officers with a specified level of cash compensation during the year with the expectation that they will perform their responsibilities to the best of their ability and in our best interests.

Generally, we establish the initial base salaries of our executive officers through arm’s-length negotiations at the time we hire them, taking into account their position, qualifications, experience, prior salary level, and the base salaries of our other executive officers. Thereafter, the talent and compensation committee reviews the base salaries of our executive officers each year as part of its annual compensation review, with input from our Chief Executive Officer (except with respect to his own base salary) and makes adjustments as it determines to be reasonable and necessary to reflect the scope of an executive officer’s performance, individual contributions and responsibilities, position in the case of a promotion, and market conditions.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

In March 2022, the talent and compensation committee reviewed the base salaries of our executive officers, taking into consideration a competitive market analysis and the recommendations of our Chief Executive Officer, as well as the other factors described in “Compensation-Setting Process—Compensation Setting” above. In connection with this review, Mr. Regan’s salary was increased to $500,000 effective February 1, 2022. Mr. Regan’s salary was further increased to $560,000 effective August 1, 2022 to reflect the expanded scope and increased responsibilities of Mr. Regan’s role within the company, including responsibilities relating to information technology and company planning. The base salaries of our remaining named executive officers did not change from 2021 levels because the talent and compensation committee felt their current base salaries remained appropriate after considering a competitive market analysis and the other factors described in “Compensation-Setting Process—Compensation Setting” above.

The base salaries of our named executive officers for 2022 were:

The base salaries paid to our named executive officers during 2022 are set forth in the “Summary Compensation Table for Fiscal Year 2022” below.

In March 2022, the talent and compensation committee, with input from management, adopted our 2022 annual cash bonus plan (the “2022 Cash Bonus Plan”), which was designed to provide financial incentives for us to meet or exceed the pre-established target levels for revenue and operating margin established under our 2022 annual operating plan. The 2022 Cash Bonus Plan funded based on our actual achievement against the pre-established target levels for the corporate performance measure.

Under the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan, cash bonus payments were based upon an eligible percentage of each participant’s base salary. In March 2022, the talent and compensation committee reviewed and approved the target annual cash bonus opportunities of our executive officers, taking into consideration the recommendations of our Chief Executive Officer (except with respect to his own target annual cash bonus opportunity) as well as the other factors described in “Compensation-Setting Process— Compensation Setting” above. Based on this review, the talent and compensation committee decided to make no adjustment to the target annual cash bonus opportunity (as a percentage of base salary) of each of our named executive officers.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

The 2022 target annual cash bonus opportunities for our named executive officers were:

Potential annual cash bonus payments for our executive officers under the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan ranged from zero to 187.5% of their target annual cash bonus opportunity.

 

The talent and compensation committee approved annual revenue (weighted 67%) and non-GAAP operating margin (weighted 33%) as components of the corporate performance measure under the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan because we believe incorporating both annual revenue and non-GAAP operating margin aligns with our emphasis on driving profitable growth. For purposes of the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan, “annual revenue” was calculated by excluding the impact of foreign exchange from our annual revenue reflected in our audited financial statements for the 2022 fiscal year as well as normalized for the impact of the conflict in Ukraine. For purposes of the 2022 Cash Bonus plan, “non-GAAP operating margin” was calculated to exclude the impact of stock-based compensation expense, acquisition-related and other expenses, amortization of acquired intangible assets and impairment charges related to real estate assets.

In March 2022, the talent and compensation committee set the target performance levels under the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan at (i) $2,348 million for annual revenue and (ii) 29.7% for non-GAAP operating margin. In addition, the talent and compensation committee approved the performance matrix for funding the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan (as described below), with a 10% reduction to actual payouts to our named executive officers if the company’s stock-based compensation expense exceeded $332 million for the 2022 fiscal year.

With respect to the annual revenue component, the bonus funding was 0% if we did not achieve annual revenue at the threshold revenue performance level. At 98% of the target revenue performance level, the annual revenue bonus funding percentage was 75%. For annual revenue above the 98% of target performance level and below 99% the target performance level, the annual revenue bonus funding percentage increased linearly up to an annual revenue bonus funding percentage of 95%. For revenue performance ± 1% of the target revenue number, the annual revenue bonus funding percentage increased linearly from 95% to 105%. For revenue performance from 101% of the target revenue performance level to 102% of the target revenue performance level, the annual revenue bonus funding percentage increased linearly up to 125%. The maximum annual revenue bonus funding percentage is 125%.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

With respect to the non-GAAP operating margin component, the bonus funding was 0% if we did not achieve non-GAAP operating margin at the threshold performance level of 26.7%. At the threshold non-GAAP operating margin performance level, the non-GAAP operating margin bonus funding percentage was 75%. For non-GAAP operating margin above the threshold performance level, the non-GAAP operating margin bonus funding percentage increased linearly up to the maximum non-GAAP operating margin bonus funding percentage of 125%.

In determining the amount of annual cash bonus payments under the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan, the talent and compensation committee considered an evaluation of each executive officer’s individual performance for the year. Generally, this evaluation involved, in the case of our Chief Executive Officer, an evaluation of his performance by the talent and compensation committee and, in the case of our other executive officers, an evaluation by our Chief Executive Officer. These evaluations were based on an overall subjective assessment of each executive officer's performance based on company priorities for the year, and no single factor was determinative in setting bonus payout levels, nor was the impact of any individual factor on the bonus quantifiable. Dropbox operates in a highly competitive industry and we set a high bar for performance expectations for each one of our named executive officers. Our named executive officers are evaluated based on their overall performance, impact, and results.

In March 2023, the talent and compensation committee, based on its evaluation, determined the size of the bonus pool based on our performance during 2022 and determined the cash bonus payments for our executive officers, including our named executive officers, pursuant to the 2022 Cash Bonus Plan. The talent and compensation committee reviewed our actual annual revenue performance for 2022 and determined that we had achieved annual revenue of $2,357 million, which was 100.4% of our annual revenue target for the year. In addition, the talent and compensation committee determined that we had achieved non-GAAP operating margin of 30.9% compared to our target of 29.7% for the year. The talent and compensation committee approved a bonus funding percentage of 104.5% with respect to the corporate performance measure.

Our Chief Executive Officer evaluated the achievement of each other executive officer and formulated a recommendation for each such executive officer’s annual cash bonus payment for consideration by the talent and compensation committee. These recommendations were based on our Chief Executive Officer’s subjective assessment of each individual’s contributions taking into account company priorities for the year. In the case of our Chief Executive Officer, the talent and compensation committee evaluated our financial and operational performance for 2022 and formulated a recommended annual cash bonus payment for him based on the subjective assessment of his performance.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

Based on these evaluations, the talent and compensation committee approved the annual cash bonus payments for our named executive officers for 2022 in the table below. Since stock-based compensation expense did not exceed $332 million for the 2022 fiscal year, there was no reduction to the annual cash bonus payments.

The annual cash bonus payments made to our named executive officers for 2022 are set forth in the “Summary Compensation Table for Fiscal Year 2022” below.

We view long-term equity incentive compensation as a critical element of our executive compensation program. The realized value of these equity awards bears a direct relationship to our stock price, and, therefore, these awards are an incentive for our executive officers to create value for our stockholders. Equity awards also help us retain qualified executive officers in a competitive market.

The amount and forms of the equity awards granted to our executive officers are determined after considering the factors described in “Compensation-Setting Process— Compensation Setting” above. The size of the equity awards is also intended to be competitive and result in target total direct compensation opportunities that we believe are reasonable and appropriate taking into consideration the factors described in the preceding sentence.

In March 2022, the talent and compensation committee approved equity grants in the form of restricted stock awards (“RSAs”) to Messrs. Regan and Volkmer, each of which were effective April 1, 2022.

Differentiation was made among our executive officers based on the talent and compensation committee’s review of the competitive market data for their respective positions, internal equity, past performance, and expected future contributions. Mr. Houston does not receive equity-based compensation in light of his significant ownership position in the company and the Co-Founder Grant he received in 2017. Mr. Young was not granted an equity award in 2022 because he was granted a meaningful performance-based equity award in late 2020 in connection with his promotion to President. The equity awards granted to our named executive officers in 2022 were as follows:

The equity awards granted to our named executive officers during 2022 are set forth in the “Summary Compensation Table for Fiscal Year 2022” and under “Grants of Plan-Based Awards in 2022” below.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

In December 2017, our board approved a grant to Mr. Houston (our co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and chair of the board of directors) of an RSA with respect to 10.3 million shares of Class A common stock in the aggregate (the “Co-Founder Grant”). The Co-Founder Grant has service-based, market-based, and performance-based vesting conditions. The Co-Founder Grant is eligible to vest over the ten-year period following the closing of our initial public offering. The Co-Founder Grant is comprised of nine tranches that are eligible to vest based on the achievement of stock price goals (each, a “Stock Price Target”), measured over a consecutive thirty-day trading period during the Performance Period (defined below), as follows:

The Performance Period began on January 2, 2019, and ends on the earliest to occur of: (i) the date on which all shares subject to the Co-Founder Grant vests, (ii) the date Mr. Houston ceases to satisfy the service-based vesting condition, and (iii) March 23, 2028 (“Performance Period”). During 2021, the $30.00 Stock Price Target was achieved and as a result, on November 15, 2021, Mr. Houston vested into 2,066,667 shares. The remaining tranches covering 8,266,666 shares remain outstanding and eligible to vest based on the achievement of the applicable stock price goals and fulfilling the service-based condition. During the first four years of the Performance Period, no more than 20% of the shares subject to the Co-Founder Grant are eligible to vest in any calendar year. After the first four years, all shares are eligible to vest based on the achievement of the Stock Price Targets.

In December 2020, Mr. Young was granted a performance-based RSA in connection with his promotion to President. The performance-based RSA granted to Mr. Young was subject to service-based and market-based vesting conditions and could become eligible to vest over an approximately three-year performance period beginning January 1, 2021. The target number of shares subject to the performance-based RSA were divided into three equal tranches, and the shares subject to a tranche could become eligible to vest based on the achievement of stock price targets measured over a consecutive thirty-day trading period during a twelve-month measurement period that began one month following the one-year anniversary of the grant date of the performance-based RSA (or in the case of the first measurement period, one month following the grant date) and ended one month following the next anniversary of the grant date, as indicated in the tables below.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

The measurement period for the second tranche was completed on December 31, 2022, and 100% of the target number of shares covered by the second tranche became eligible to vest based on the achievement of the $21.50 stock price target. As a result, Mr. Young vested in 176,522 shares on February 15, 2023. The remaining outstanding shares subject to Mr. Young’s award were forfeited upon his departure on March 15, 2023.

In addition, prior to the termination of the award, the shares subject to the performance-based RSA were eligible to vest in connection with certain terminations of Mr. Young’s employment and/or a “change in control” (as defined in our 2018 Equity Incentive Plan), as described further below in the section titled “Potential Payments on Termination or Change in Control.”

We have established a tax-qualified Section 401(k) retirement savings plan for our executive officers, including our named executive officers, and other employees who satisfy certain eligibility requirements. Currently, we match contributions made by participants in the plan as follows: dollar for dollar up to a maximum of $6,000 per calendar year.

We intend for the plan to qualify under Section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), so that contributions by participants to the plan, and income earned on plan contributions, are not taxable to participants until withdrawn from the plan.

Additional benefits received by our executive officers include medical, dental, and vision insurance, fertility benefits, an employee assistance program, commuter and wellness reimbursement programs, health and dependent care flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, basic and voluntary life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance and disability insurance. All of these benefits are provided to our executive officers on the same basis as to all of our employees.

We design our employee benefits programs to be affordable and competitive in relation to the market, as well as compliant with applicable laws and practices. We adjust our employee benefits programs as needed, based upon regular monitoring of applicable laws and practices, changes to the working arrangements of our employees and the competitive market.

Currently, we do not view perquisites or other personal benefits as a significant component of our executive compensation program. Accordingly, we do not provide significant perquisites or other personal benefits to our executive officers except as generally made available to our employees, or in situations where we believe it is appropriate to assist an individual in the performance of their duties, to make him or her more efficient and effective, and for recruitment and retention purposes.

In 2022, the talent and compensation committee approved the provision of security measures to Messrs. Houston and Young. We consider the security measures provided to Messrs. Houston and Young to be reasonable and necessary expenses for the benefit of the company and not a personal benefit. However, in accordance with SEC disclosure rules, the aggregate incremental cost of these services is reported in the “Summary Compensation Table.” Mr. Houston participates in a security program with an annual limit of $250,000 in 2022. The talent and compensation committee periodically reviews the nature and cost of this program in relation to Mr. Houston’s security profile. The cost of the security services for Mr. Houston in 2022 was $15,000. Mr. Young received security services in 2022 with a cost of $4,000.

In the future, we may provide perquisites or other personal benefits in limited circumstances, such as those described in the preceding paragraphs. All future practices with respect to perquisites or other personal benefits will be approved and subject to periodic review by the talent and compensation committee.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

We have entered into written employment letters with our Chief Executive Officer and each of our other executive officers. Each of these arrangements was approved on our behalf by the talent and compensation committee or our board of directors.

In filling each of our executive positions, our board of directors or the talent and compensation committee, as applicable, recognized that we would need to develop competitive compensation packages to attract qualified candidates in a dynamic labor market. At the same time, our board of directors and the talent and compensation committee were sensitive to the need to integrate new executive officers into the executive compensation structure, balancing both competitive and internal equity considerations.

Each of our employment arrangements provides for “at will” employment (meaning that either we or the executive officer may terminate the employment relationship at any time with or without cause) and sets forth the initial compensation arrangements for the executive officer, including an initial base salary, participation in our employee benefit programs, an equity award recommendation, and, in some cases, sign-on bonuses and reimbursement or payment of relocation expenses. These employment arrangements also prohibit the executive officer from engaging directly or indirectly in competition with us during their employment, diverting our customers to a competitor, or disclosing our confidential information or business practices, and recruiting or soliciting any of our employees for a period after their employment.

Our executive officers are also eligible to enter into change in control and severance agreements with the company. These post-employment compensation terms are discussed in “Post-Employment Compensation” below.

We have entered into change in control and severance agreements with each of our executive officers, including each of our named executive officers. These agreements provide these individuals with certain protection in the event of their termination of employment under specified circumstances, including following a change in control of the company.

We believe that these protections were necessary to induce these individuals to accept a demanding position with the company and help retain them. These arrangements provide reasonable compensation to an executive officer if they leave our employ under certain circumstances to facilitate transition to new employment. Further, in some instances, we seek to mitigate any potential employer liability and avoid future disputes or litigation by requiring a departing executive officer to sign a separation and release agreement as a condition to receiving post-employment compensation payments or benefits. We also believe that these arrangements help maintain our executive officers’ continued focus and dedication to their assigned duties to maximize stockholder value if there is a potential transaction that could involve a change in control of the company. The terms and conditions were approved by our board of directors after an analysis of competitive market data.

All payments and benefits in the event of a change in control of the company are payable only if there is a subsequent loss of employment by an executive officer (a so-called “double-trigger” arrangement). In the case of the acceleration of vesting of outstanding equity awards, we use this double-trigger arrangement to protect against the loss of retention value following a change in control of the company, and to avoid windfalls, both of which could occur if vesting of either equity or cash-based awards accelerated automatically as a result of the transaction.

Mr. Houston’s Co-Founder Grant (as described below) vests in connection with our acquisition, and as noted above, prior to the termination of the award in connection with Mr. Young’s resignation, the performance-based RSA granted to Mr. Young in November 2020 was eligible to vest in connection with certain terminations of Mr. Young’s employment and/or a “change in control” (as defined in our 2018 Equity Incentive Plan). Mr. Young’s resignation did not trigger any accelerated vesting of his RSA. See the section titled “Potential Payments on Termination or Change in Control” below for additional details.

As part of our Insider Trading Policy, our employees (including our executive officers and the non-employee members of our board of directors) are prohibited from trading in publicly-traded options, such as puts and calls, and other derivative securities with respect to our securities. This includes any hedging or similar transaction designed to decrease the risks associated with holding shares of our common stock. In addition, our employees (including our executive officers and the non-employee members of our board of directors) are prohibited from holding our common stock in a margin account or pledging our securities as collateral for a loan.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

We take the applicable tax and accounting requirements into consideration in designing and operating our executive compensation program.

Generally, Section 162(m) of the Code disallows public companies a tax deduction for federal income tax purposes of remuneration in excess of $1 million paid to their Chief Executive Officer and certain other current and former executive officers that are “covered employees” within the meaning of Section 162(m) of the Code, subject to certain exceptions, including certain compensation paid pursuant to a compensation plan in existence before the effective date of our initial public offering.

The talent and compensation committee has not adopted a policy that all equity or other compensation must be deductible. In approving the amount and form of compensation for our executive officers, the talent and compensation committee considers all elements of our cost of providing such compensation, including the potential impact of Section 162(m) of the Code. The talent and compensation committee may, in its judgment, approve compensation that may not be deductible for federal income tax purposes when it believes that such compensation is in our best interests or the best interests of our stockholders.

We do not provide, and have no obligation to provide, any of our named executive officers with a “gross-up” payment for any tax liability he or she might owe because of the application of Sections 280G, 4999 or 409A of the Code. If any of the payments or benefits provided for under the change in control and severance agreements or otherwise payable to a named executive officer would constitute “parachute payments” within the meaning of Section 280G of the Code and could be subject to the related excise tax, he or she would receive either full payment of such payments and benefits or such lesser amount that would cause no portion of the payments and benefits being subject to the excise tax, whichever results in the greater after-tax benefits to our named executive officer.

Our talent and compensation committee considers accounting effects in designing compensation plans and arrangements for our executive officers and other employees. Chief among these is ASC Topic 718, the standard which governs the accounting treatment of stock-based compensation awards. ASC Topic 718 requires companies to measure the compensation expense for all share-based payment awards made to employees and directors, including stock options, restricted stock units and restricted stock awards, based on the grant date “fair value” of these awards. This calculation is performed for accounting purposes and reported in the compensation tables below, even though our executive officers may realize no value from their awards. ASC Topic 718 also requires companies to recognize the compensation cost of their share-based payment awards in their income statements over the period that an executive officer is required to render service in exchange for the option or other award.

We estimated the grant date fair value of Mr. Houston’s Co-Founder Grant using a model based on multiple stock price paths developed through the use of a Monte Carlo simulation that incorporates into the valuation the possibility that the Stock Price Targets may not be satisfied. The average grant date fair value of the Co-Founder Grant was estimated to be $10.60 per share, and we will recognize total stock-based compensation expense of $109.6 million over the requisite service period of each tranche, which ranged from 2.9 to 6.9 years, using the accelerated attribution method. If the Stock Price Targets are met sooner than the derived service period, we will adjust our stock-based compensation to reflect the cumulative expense associated with the vested awards. We will recognize stock-based compensation expense if the requisite service period is provided, regardless of whether the market conditions are achieved.

The fair value of the Co-Founder Grant, whereby vesting is contingent on meeting certain market conditions was estimated using the following assumptions:

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

Expected grant date, expected IPO date, lock-up period, and expiration date. The Grant Date, expected IPO date, and the expiration of the lock-up period were estimates at the time of the valuation and correspond to the terms defined in the Restricted Stock Award Agreement.

Grant price. The grant priced is based on the valuation of Common Stock as of December 12, 2017.

Expected volatility. Expected volatility is based on the average of the implied volatility of the longer at-the-money call option and the annualized daily return volatility over the greater of the trading history or the term for each one of the guideline companies. The concluded volatility is then based on the medium of the comparable companies.

Risk-free interest rate. The risk-free interest rate is interpolated based on the U.S. Treasury rates sourced from S&P Capital IQ with a term commensurate with the remaining performance period.

Expected dividend. The Company has not paid and does not expect to pay dividends. Consequently, the Company uses an expected dividend yield of zero.

We estimated the grant date fair value of the performance-based RSA granted to Mr. Young in December 2020 using a model based on multiple stock price paths developed through the use of a Monte Carlo simulation that incorporates into the valuation the potential stock price goals that could be achieved during each measurement period. We would have recognized approximately $19.1 million in stock-based compensation expense associated with this award using the accelerated attribution method through February 15, 2024. We would have recognized stock-based compensation expense if the requisite service period was provided, regardless of whether the market conditions were achieved. Mr. Young’s employment with us ended on March 15, 2023, and as a result, the stock-based compensation expense associated with the unvested tranche was reversed and any future stock-based compensation expense that would have been taken was cancelled from the grant date through February 15, 2024.

The fair value of Mr. Young's RSA, whereby vesting is contingent on meeting certain market conditions was estimated using the following assumptions:

Stock Price. The stock price used in a Monte Carlo simulation is based on the Company’s close price as of the valuation date, December 1, 2020.

Risk-free interest rate. The risk-free rate used in a Monte Carlo simulation is interpolated based on the U.S. Treasury rates sourced from Department of the Treasury as of December 1, 2020 with a term commensurate with the remaining performance period.

Expected volatility. The expected volatility used in a Monte Carlo simulation is based on the Company's historical volatility. Expected volatility is based on the equally weighted historical volatility of 45.50% and implied volatility of 51.26%. Historical volatility was estimated based on the Company’s share close price for the period September 26, 2018 to December 1, 2020. The implied volatility was retrieved from Bloomberg for the Company’s at-the-money options with maturity on December 29, 2023.

Expected dividend. The Company has not paid and does not expect to pay dividends. Consequently, the Company uses an expected dividend yield of zero.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

The talent and compensation committee has reviewed and discussed with management the Compensation Discussion and Analysis provided above. Based on its review and discussions, the talent and compensation committee recommended to the board of directors that the Compensation Discussion and Analysis be included in this proxy statement and Dropbox’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.

Respectfully submitted by the members of the talent and compensation committee of the board of directors:

Sara Mathew (Chair)

Karen Peacock

Abhay Parasnis

Michael Seibel

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

Our management regularly assesses and discusses with the talent and compensation committee our compensation programs, policies, and practices for our employees as they relate to our risk management. In this regard, we undertake a risk review of our employee compensation programs, policies, and practices (including our executive compensation program) each year to determine whether these programs, policies, and practices contain features that might create undue risks or encourage unnecessary and excessive risk-taking that could threaten our value. Based upon this review, we believe that any risks arising from such programs, policies, and practices are not reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on us.

Our employees’ base salaries are fixed in amount and thus we do not believe that they encourage excessive risk-taking. While performance-based cash bonuses and sales commissions focus on achievement of short-term or annual goals, which may encourage the taking of short-term risks at the expense of long-term results, we believe that our compensation policies and the risk mitigation features of our cash bonus plans help mitigate this risk and our performance-based cash bonuses and sales commissions are limited, representing a small portion of the total compensation opportunities available to most non-executive employees. We also believe that our performance-based cash bonuses and sales commissions appropriately balance risk and the desire to focus our employees on specific short-term goals important to our success, and do not encourage unnecessary or excessive risk-taking.

A significant proportion of the compensation provided to most of our employees involves long-term incentive compensation in the form of equity awards that we believe are important to help further align our employees’ interests with those of our stockholders. These equity awards directly tie their expectations of compensation to their contributions to the long-term value of our company. We do not believe that these equity awards encourage unnecessary or excessive risk-taking given their multi-year vesting schedules and since their ultimate value is tied to our stock price.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (continued)

 

The following table shows all plan-based awards granted to our named executive officers during fiscal 2022.

The following table sets forth information regarding outstanding equity awards held by our named executive officers as of December 31, 2022.