Less than divine debut 

Chicago Sun Times

July 12, 2000

BY JESSICA MADORE FITCH BUSINESS REPORTER 

The name may be heavenly, but the first day of trading wasn't. Shares of divine
interVentures inc. had a sluggish start on the Nasdaq Stock Market today, opening
at $8.50 and lagging behind the $9 initial public offering price throughout the day.

The Lisle-based Internet incubator's stock closed at $8.78 1/8, down 21 7/8
cents. More than 7.2 million shares changed hands. 

``Divine's model is so risky,'' said Jeffrey Hirschkorn, a senior market analyst at
IPO .com of New York. ``People are scared to go near it. Investors don't want to
get burned.''

Twenty percent of IPOs trade below their offering price on the first day of trading,
Hirschkorn added.

Shares of divine traded under a temporary ticker symbol, ``TEMPV,'' today
because ``the underwriter hasn't completed settlement of the offering,'' a Nasdaq
spokesman said. ``This doesn't occur very often.'' The stock should trade under
``DVIN'' Thursday.

Investment banker Robertson Stephens priced 14.3 million shares of divine
Tuesday evening, raising about $128 million for the company. The offering also
engages a series of concurrent private placements that should raise another $219
million.

Divine founder Andrew J. ``Flip'' Filipowski struggled with Securities and
Exchange Commission demands and reluctant bankers before taking his company
public. In a statement to employees, Filipowski applauds their loyalty and work on
sometimes ``unfriendly terrain.''

``Certain events in the life of an individual and in the life of an organization test
one's/its mettle,'' Filipowski wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to employees obtained by
the Sun-Times. ``The result is an organization better able to withstand the
challenges that always appear in the cycles of life. ... The battles fought and the
battles won are sweeter when you feel you have stood up to the overwhelming
risks and conflicts and have persevered. ... divine as an organization has just
passed through one of these challenges and I believe is so much better prepared
for the tasks that will confront us in the future.''

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