Divine IPO delayed yet again 

Chicago Sun Times

July 11, 2000

BY JESSICA MADORE FITCH BUSINESS REPORTER 

Divine is delayed again.

Investment banker Robertson Stephens postponed pricing divine interVentures
inc.'s initial public offering late Monday, preparatory to public trading in the stock.
The bank said earlier in the day the IPO of 14.3 million shares was on schedule.

But the job didn't get done, and the bank didn't explain why. "We'll try again
tomorrow," a spokeswoman said.

Pricing was also a non-starter last Thursday. Then on Friday, Robertson Stephens
cut divine's price range to $9 to $10 a share from $13 to $15, trimming $57 million
to $70 million off the offering.

One portfolio manager said Monday his company won't consider buying divine
stock. "There's too much hair on the deal," said Mike Rosinus of Tiedemann
Investment Group. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been all over the
offering, asking the company to disclose additional information a number of times.

"Our guys are steering clear, and based on our perspective, demand for the offer
has probably been poor," he said.

Divine refiled its prospectus to correct statements made by founder Andrew J.
"Flip" Filipowski during a May 26 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

In that interview, Filipowski said divine had more than $100 million in cash, and
was burning through $5 million each month. But the company's new SEC filing
stated that in fact, divine had $132.1 million in cash and cash equivalents as of May
31, and "our burn rate averaged approximately $11,628,000 for the first three
months of 2000 and averaged approximately $13,391,000 for April and May
2000."

In the same interview, Filipowski said divine would begin making money in eight
months. Divine told the SEC: "We cannot now determine when we will begin
making money--or become cash-flow positive--but do not expect to be cash-flow
positive in eight months or for the foreseeable future after that time."

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