NetSuite edges closer to IPO; price range and ticker set

Software as a service company NetSuite moved closer to an IPO as it shared more details about its public market debut.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NetSuite said it will offer 6.2 million shares with the option for underwriters to buy an additional 930,000 shares. NetSuite also set its price range between $13 and $16 each.

The stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "N."

Single letter tickers are essentially the vanity plate of Wall Street. It's likely the NYSE dangled the single letter to get NetSuite's listing. Credit Suisse and W.R. Hambrecht are the underwriters.

Meanwhile, NetSuite also provided updated financial results. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company had a net loss of $20.6 million on revenue of $76.8 million. NetSuite also had 5,400 active customers.

IPO proceeds will be used to pay off an $8 million credit line with Larry Ellison's investment arm Tako Ventures, invest $10 million to $15 million for capital expenses (a second data center), working capital and potential acquisitions. Ellison has put his shares in a lockbox to ensure NetSuite independence.

Here's what NetSuite had to say about its data center expansion:

We have developed our infrastructure with the goal of maximizing the availability of our application, which are hosted on a highly-scalable network located in a single, secure third-party facility. On March 17, 2006, we entered into a revised Master Service Agreement with Level 3 Communications, LLC in connection with our data center facility. Pursuant to this agreement, and associated work orders, we have leased facility space, power, and internet connectivity for multiple one-year terms. For the year ended December 31, 2006, we paid $764,000 to Level 3 under this agreement. On December 4, 2007, we entered into an agreement with SAVVIS Communications Corporation, a second data center facility provider, in anticipation of future growth, and we may transfer our data center facility. We currently intend to add an additional data center facility in 2008, the primary purpose of which is to add capacity. Our hosting operations incorporate industry-standard hardware, the Linux open-source operating system and Oracle databases and application servers into a flexible, scalable architecture.