Billion-dollar baby?

NetSuite, a hosted applications company that got its legs with an initial bankroll by Oracle's Uncle Larry, is gearing up for a big-time IPO that would value the company at the billion dollar mark, according to a posting on TechCrunch.

An offering of that magnitude, combined with storage maker Isilon System's IPO earlier this month that gave it a market cap of $1.4 billion, is enough to make a market grinch cheer.

Should NetSuite become the next billion-dollar baby, it would bolster its leverage against rival Salesforce.com, another hosted applications provider and one with a $4.3 billion market cap.

The folks at NetSuite are remaining mum on the topic of an IPO, which may not be such a bad idea given the experience Salesforce encountered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on its way to an IPO.