Previously:

• A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg


• B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big


• F is for Fitzpatrick, and "hookers and blow"


• L is for Levchin, who never goes slow

One theory: Avaricious day traders, hoping that the stock might drop from its IPO price, may have sold it short. As the price slowly rose, they would have found themselves losing money, a position known as a "short squeeze." To get out, they'd have to buy shares of a thinly traded stock, in a rising market — a formula guaranteed to push shares sky-high. Note that NetSuite only sold 6.2 million shared on the market, but 15.9 million shares changed hands today. That's a lot of buying and selling. Any other theories? Let me know.

Normally, a prissy letter to the editor would be in order. But since the story ran while NetSuite was in a quiet period, the time prior to an IPO when a company can only communicate through the smoke signals of SEC filings, NetSuite had to issue a "free writing prospectus" instead. While some of its complaints seem like quibbles, others seem like easily checked facts, such as when CEO Zach Nelson, shown here, joined the company. As far as I can tell, Times has not yet corrected the story. When the SEC has become your newspaper's unofficial ombudsman, you have a problem.

NetSuite says subsequent market demand may not immediately match share prices set by its auction-model IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal. Translation: The price could well drop. Somebody ought to warn Craig Ramsey, the Salesforce.com board member who invested in the company. Unless this is exactly what he wanted to happen. Crafty!

We have not been profitable on a quarterly or annual basis since our formation. We experienced a net loss of $23.4 million for 2006 and $3.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2007. As of March 31, 2007, our accumulated deficit was $193.0 million. We expect to make significant future expenditures related to the development and expansion of our business. In addition, as a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company.

We host our services and serve all of our customers from a single third-party data center facility located in California. We do not control the operation of this facility. This facility is vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures and similar events. Our data facility is located in an area known for seismic activity, increasing our susceptibility to the risk that an earthquake could significantly harm the operations of this facility.

Our data facility has no obligation to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to renew our agreement with the facility on commercially reasonable terms, we may experience costs or downtime in connection with the transfer to a new data center facility.

There's more along these lines, if you have the stomach for making it through the entire S-1. Most investors won't bother, of course, which is why, despite NetSuite's flaws as a business, it might actually manage to go public. That's the point of releasing a prospectus, of course: Even if no one pays attention, you can't say you weren't warned.

Nelson and team aside, the other big winners? Early NetSuite backer Larry Ellison (BW: "After the IPO he's still likely to own over 50% of the stock")—and all those who dream of that IPO moment, a dream deferred lo these last, er, few months since titular domain registrar GoDaddy pulled its filing in August. Onward, etc.

NetSuite's Going Public, Looking for $1 Billion Valuation [TechCrunch]
NetSuite Gets Ready for its Close-Up [Business Week]

BONUS: Speaking of GoDaddy, Business 2.0's Paul Sloan pens a long piece about the firm and its irascible CEO, Bob Parsons. Per the canceled IPO, "Parsons says he'll come back to Wall Street eventually." Oh, they always do. (Over/under: May '07.) [Business 2.0]

Which pre-IPO CEO just bought a Bentley you ask? Perhaps it was preowned by none other than Larry Ellison? Netsuite, thats who.

Tipline, for anyone with details, is tips@valleywag.com. Would it be crass to ask for pics? It would be crass to ask for pics. Please, if you see Zach's car, take pics.

Ellison's old boat, the "Ronin" (the name means "masterless samurai" in Japanese — or, more distressingly, "one who is tossed like a wave on the sea"), is furnished with a full lounge set, multiple dining tables, and a basketball hoop. And, oddly, an empty hot tub. Why wouldn't a crowd of Bay Area journalists and notables want to polish off their party with a party in the jacuzzi? I mean, it'd at least make a great photo for Valleywag.

Netsuite parties on Larry's yacht [Tech Chronicles]