The bidding has begun in the initial public offering of NetSuite, the business software firm majority owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his family.
On Monday, the San Mateo, California-based company opened its offering of 6.2 million common shares in a modified Dutch auction run by Credit Suisse Securities and W.R. Hambrecht.
Both institutional and retail investors can bid on shares of the company, whose business software suite is designed to appeal to small and medium-sized businesses.
In the auction, similar to that employed by Google in its IPO, investors can specify how many shares they would like to buy and at what price. The auction will determine a “clearing price,” the highest price at which all shares offered may be sold. Bids that come in at or above the clearing price will be allocated shares.
NetSuite has grown its revenues but continues to run in the red, losing $35.7 million in 2006 and $20.6 million through the first three quarters of 2007.