To be fair - dropbox has shown considerable restraint here. In all that time hackpad was useful and not apparently neglected. And given dropbox gives a small footprint for free, and a bit more of you make virtual instances and email codes to yourself, its not the worst in rent seeking.

In my experience, companies do often plan things, yes.

I think you're implying that I'm stating the obvious here, but, almost every time one of these sunsetting announcements comes out, it's written as if the company just recently decided this was genuinely the best move for everyone, customers and employees alike. "We've had an incredible journey and it's just time now."

I think the timing of "3 years plus a week" indicates that they either decided this date 3 years ago and were just biding their time, or that someone signed an agreement to keep it going for 3 years and they're no longer being held to that.