NetSuite


NetSuite Inc. was an American cloud computing company founded in 1998 with headquarters in San Mateo, California that provided software and services to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations. Its software and services were tailored for small, medium-sized and large businesses with modules for ERP, CRM, PSA and e-commerce. Oracle Corporation acquired NetSuite for approximately US$9.3 billion in November 2016. The newly formed Oracle Netsuite business unit is managed by Executive Vice President Evan Goldberg as Oracle’s Cloud ERP for small and mid-sized enterprises.

History

NetSuite was founded in 1998 by Evan Goldberg under the original name NetLedger, which offered web-hosted accounting software. The company was seeded with both start-up money from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as well as a host of key staff previously employed at Oracle. The company’s Chairman and CTO and other management transitioned from Oracle to NetSuite. At one time the NetSuite solution was licensed by Oracle, branded The Oracle Small Business Suite, however, that experience was short lived and the program was cancelled. NetSuite is widely seen as the first cloud computing software company, with the company’s 1999 founding pre-dating that of Salesforce.com by about a month. Goldberg was the chairman and chief technology officer up until the Oracle acquisition.
In July 2002, Zach Nelson was appointed CEO. Prior to joining NetSuite, Nelson ran an early provider of business applications over the Internet called MyCIO.com, a division of McAfee Corp. This experience led him to the belief that all software would be delivered over the internet, and he left McAfee to join NetSuite. He led the company from about $1 million in revenue to a billion-dollar run-rate prior to its acquisition by Oracle Corp.
On January 4, 2007, NetSuite named Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane to its board of directors. Evan Goldberg cited Beane's ability to combine facts with instinct as an important factor in the decision to involve him in the company.
NetSuite became a publicly traded company after its initial public offering of 6.2 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2007.
One quarter of employees are based in its Philippine office. NetSuite has additional offices in Denver, Las Vegas, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, Boston, Toronto, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Uruguay.

Relationship with Oracle Corporation

In 1998 Evan Goldberg received approximately $125 million in initial financial backing from Larry Ellison, founder and chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation through Ellison's venture capital entity Tako Ventures. Other initial investors were StarVest Partners, ADP and UBS PaineWebber. The NetSuite software also relies on database software licensed from Oracle.
Ellison and family members owned approximately 47.4% of NetSuite's common stock as of December 31, 2014. The firm's 10-Q filing on March 2, 2015, stated that "Mr. Ellison is able to exercise control over approval of significant corporate transactions, including a change of control or liquidation."
On July 28, 2016, Oracle announced it had offered to purchase NetSuite for $9.3 billion. The deal faced intense scrutiny because Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, owned nearly 40% of NetSuite. This conflict of interest has led the board of both companies to establish independent committees to review the deal from the perspective of independent shareholders. Some major NetSuite shareholders, such as T. Rowe, notified Oracle they would not be tendering their shares under the current terms of the proposed deal. In early October 2016, Oracle extended the deadline for shareholders of NetSuite to tender their shares to November 4. The deal closed Nov. 7.

Products, services and support

NetSuite offered four main pieces of software and optional implementation and support services: