NetSuite
More info
- Creator
- Evan Goldberg
- Released
- 1998
- Type
- Cloud ERP
- Owner
- Oracle (2016)
- Website
- netsuite.com
The first cloud-based business system — started with Larry Ellison's money and eventually absorbed by his Oracle.
Evan Goldberg founded the company in 1998 as NetLedger, funded by Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The idea was radical for its time: a complete business suite — accounting, orders, inventory, CRM — that ran entirely in the browser rather than being installed on the company's own servers. That made NetSuite one of the earliest pure SaaS products, years before the term existed.
Oracle bought the company in 2016 for about $9.3 billion, partly because Ellison already held a large stake. NetSuite targets mid-sized firms that have outgrown simple bookkeeping but don't want to carry an on-premise SAP. The product lives on as Oracle's cloud ERP for exactly that segment.