Andrew "Flip" Filipowski's Divine Interventures Inc. may delay its initial public offering yet again.

The offering of the Lisle-based Internet holding company, which had been expected to price Thursday and begin trading Friday, has already been altered a number of times.

So even if the delay is only until early July, as is now expected, analysts say it's yet another setback in a string of troubles in Divine's effort to become publicly traded.

A Divine spokeswoman wouldn't comment, citing a Securities and Exchange Commission-mandated quiet period in preparation for the IPO. She didn't, however, deny reports that Divine planned to push back the IPO until sometime next month.

Only three weeks ago, Divine restructured its initial public offering by changing terms of the deal and switching underwriters.

"They have made a lot of different amendments," said Michael Falbo, analyst with IpoPros.com, a Boulder, Colo., firm that tracks initial offerings. "We don't believe that this deal is in very good shape at all."

But a potential investor who had attended the company's recent road show told Dow Jones News Service that the delay most likely wasn't caused by a lack of investor demand.

Divine will need such investor confidence, given that as part of the June 5 restructuring it raised the price of the shares to be offered to between $13 and $15 a share from the earlier price of $6 to $8 a share. The number of shares offered in the IPO was slashed to just under 14.3 million from 20 million. The restructured IPO is expected to raise roughly $200 million, up from $140 million in its previous incarnation.

Founded last year by Filipowski, who is arguably Chicago's best-known computer personality, Divine quickly became the most high-profile Internet firm in the area. The company pulled together $400 million in funding from a range of Chicago business leaders, Microsoft Corp. and Dell Computer Corp. and attracted media attention from around the country.

Filipowski led the charge to promote the new firm, delivering speeches around Chicago about how old-economy stalwarts must quickly join the Internet frenzy or face extinction.

Divine, he said, planned to invigorate the local dot-com scene by investing in a range of young Internet and high-tech firms. The company quickly founded or invested in 52 firms and brought in more than 750 employees, including the people at the companies in which it made investments.

But Divine's rapid growth slowed earlier this year after the technology-laden Nasdaq stock market plunged, temporarily sapping investor interest in speculative technology ventures. Divine laid off 29 employees in May as it slowed the pace of its new investments and delayed construction of its new $62.9 million headquarters campus on Goose Island, which originally had a move-in date of this fall.

The City of Chicago contributed $14 million in tax increment financing for the Goose Island project.

Divine's IPO, if it does indeed go forward, should provide the company with the money it needs to continue construction at Goose Island as well as expand and open new offices in Austin, Texas, Seattle and abroad.

In addition to the cash infusion from the public offering, Divine expects to receive $233 million from nine companies in private placements to take place concurrently with the IPO. The companies involved in the private offering include Level 3 Communications, Compaq Computer Corp. and 360 Networks Inc.

Most technology companies that were preparing public offerings for this spring and summer have backed off, either pulling their planned IPOs or going into a holding pattern to see if the market improves for such ventures.

Divine bucked that trend. In May, the company dumped its lead investment banker, Credit Suisse First Boston, which wanted Divine to postpone its public offering. The firm installed San Francisco-based Robertson Stephens as its lead investment banker and announced plans to go ahead with the IPO.

Pitched as a new-economy conglomerate, Divine invests in Internet firms that do business with each other and outside clients and rely on the parent company to provide a range of resources and services. Divine created numerous service companies to perform specific functions, including those for public relations (Buzz Divine), strategic consulting (Experience Divine) and real estate (DotSpot Divine).