WebProNews

Three bucks isn't much, but to look at it another way, it's about 19 percent of sixteen dollars.  So we're at least mildly impressed that NetSuite, a business software maker, has been able to raise the expected price range of its IPO by that much.

Yes, say goodbye to the previously announced $13-$16 range; $16-$19 is now the price on 6.2 million shares.  NetSuite is still selling the shares in an auction that'll allow average investors a chance to buy them, however.  (In a normal IPO, institutional investors have all the fun.)

"While not common, auction-based IPOs have been used for some high-profile IPOs," notes Lilla Zuill.  "Options-trading firm Interactive Brokers Group raised $1.2 billion earlier this year, and Google Inc used a modified auction format in its 2004 offering."

So is NetSuite guaranteed some sort of victory due to its imitation of Google?  Well, not really.  The search giant's stock is now at $673.51, having started out at $85.  But Interactive Brokers Group began its publicly traded life at $30.01, and is now hanging around $30.15.  Not bad, but far from impressive.

We'll just see how far NetSuite's ties to Oracle can take it, then; Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a top (though mostly silent) investor, and NetSuite intends to serve companies that are too small for Oracle's tastes.