Netsuite, the software developer that helps companies run their businesses through a web browser, is taking the unconventional route to an expected IPO this year.

It is planning a Google-style Dutch auction process for its offering and has just strengthened its bench by adding a well known baseball manager to the board of directors.

Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, is recognised for the high degree of statistical analysis he has brought to the game.

“Billy’s outrageously successful approach in changing the game of baseball by …using facts to supplement instinct is very similar to the transformation our customers undergo when they move their business to Netsuite,” said Evan Goldberg, Netsuite chairman, in a somewhat unconvincing comparison.

However, Billy’s maths skills do seem a natural fit with the geeks at Netsuite, whose software already runs the Oakland A’s sales and marketing operations and whose CEO Zach Nelson is a big A’s fan.

As far as the IPO goes, Netsuite was completing its beauty parade of bankers last month and it seems only the Silicon Valley company’s other sporting influence - sailor, majority investor, Oracle founder and would-be San Francisco 49ers owner Larry Ellison - could delay its march to the market now.

Chris Nuttall, San Francisco

January 4th, 2007 in Software | Permalink