NetSuite Inc. is an American cloud-based enterprise software company that provides products and services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) including accounting and financial management, customer relationship management (CRM), inventory management, human capital management, payroll, procurement, project management and e-commerce software. NetSuite was founded in 1998 with headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company is widely seen as the first cloud computing software company, with its founding pre-dating that of Salesforce by about a month. Oracle Corporation acquired NetSuite for approximately US$9.3 billion in November 2016. The Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit is managed by Executive Vice President Evan Goldberg as "Oracle’s Cloud ERP for Small and Mid-sized Enterprises with the ability to scale to Fortune 500 firms".

History

NetSuite can trace its beginning to a five-minute phone call between Evan Goldberg and Larry Ellison, when the two discussed the idea of selling software over the internet. That conversation led Evan Goldberg to found NetLedger, NetSuite's original name, in 1998. It offered web-hosted accounting software. The company was seeded with 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 NetLedger. At one time the solution was licensed by Oracle, branded The Oracle Small Business Suite; however, that experience was short-lived, and the licensing deal was cancelled in 2004. 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. In September 2003, the company officially changed its name from NetLedger to NetSuite, Inc. to reflect the company's success in expanding its offerings to a suite of business applications beyond just accounting, including ERP, CRM and e-commerce. On January 4, 2007, NetSuite named Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane (of Moneyball fame) to its board of directors. NetSuite became a publicly traded company after its initial public offering (IPO) of 6.2 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2007. On July 28, 2016, Oracle announced it had offered to purchase NetSuite for $9.3 billion. The deal closed in November. NetSuite headquarters are located in Austin, Texas. NetSuite has additional offices in Denver, Colorado; Santa Monica and Redwood City, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; New York City; Boston, Massachusetts; Toronto, Canada; the United Kingdom; Spain; the Czech Republic; Philippines; Hong Kong; Singapore; Australia; Brazil; and Uruguay. In 2023, NetSuite celebrated its 25-year anniversary.

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 Oracle Database software. 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 offers a modular suite of cloud-based business management applications. Depending on the choice of modules, the platform can support accounting capabilities like general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, tax management, purchasing and inventory and order management, along with optional modules like customer relationship management, e-commerce, human resource and workforce management, payroll management, professional services automation, warehouse management and supply chain management, which can be activated as needed. The cost of a NetSuite subscription is not fixed: it depends on the modules selected and the number of users. The platform is accessed via the cloud and all data is centralized and stored in the cloud, allowing users to access data from different devices and countries. Fixed asset management, revenue recognition, planning and budgeting and subscription billing are also available. Multi-entity and global accounting and consolidation functionality is available at additional cost via NetSuite's OneWorld module, which supports 27 languages, and multiple currencies and tax codes. As with other cloud-based applications, periodic upgrades offer clients access to current features and functionality more readily than they would have been able to achieve using on-premises code. NetSuite offers analytics and reporting, which use the centralized data to provide real-time visibility into client company operational and financial performance. Pre-configured role-based dashboards and key performance indicators allow users to monitor business performance.

Products

Services

Acquisitions

Reception

In 2024, NetSuite was named Frost & Sullivan Global Cloud ERP Company of the Year.