• New York Times, Thursday, December 27, 2007 11:15 AM

Software company NetSuite raised $185.4 million in its initial public offering--nearly double what the company had originally forecast. NetSuite sold 6.2 million shares of common stock at $26 per share via a Dutch auction; the company's underwriters opted to buy an additional 930,000 shares. The New York Times says NetSuite's success is a good sign for business-to-business Web-based software, which is also a crucial growth area for companies like Google and Salesforce.com. It was the most closely watched IPO in the tech sector since VMware, a virtualization software provider, went public earlier in the year.

NetSuite B2B software offerings include enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and e-commerce applications. Its clients pay for NetSuite's software on a subscription basis. In 2006, the company had revenue of $67.2 million and a net loss of $35.7 million. As of Sept. 30, 2007, the company improved to $76.8 million in revenue, with a net loss of $20.6 million. The stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "N."

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