Divine delayed again as it tries to go public 

Chicago Sun Times

July 7, 2000

BY JESSICA MADORE FITCH BUSINESS REPORTER 

Divine is going . . . going . . . delayed.

Divine interVentures inc., the Lisle Internet operating company, was scheduled to
begin trading today on the Nasdaq stock exchange. But late Thursday, divine's
banker, Robertson Stephens, said the often-delayed IPO was postponed yet
again--this time, until Monday at the earliest.

Why? "It just is," said a spokeswoman at Robertson Stephens. "There is no specific
reason."

Divine is trying to sell 14.3 million shares of stock for $13 to $15 a piece. If priced
at $15 a share, the IPO would raise $214 million for divine and would value the
holdings of founder Andrew J. Filipowski at as much as $232.5 million.

"If the company is determined to go public as soon as possible, this is a great time to
do it," said George Nichols, an analyst at Morningstar, the Chicago financial
information company. "The IPO market is in an upswing, and the IPO calendar is
pretty empty this week."

Filipowski, divine's chief executive and "vision master," filed to go public in
December, a bold move considering he incorporated divine only seven months
earlier. Many local technology and venture capital pros applauded Filipowski and
bought into the company's potential.

Progress was hindered by several problems. Last week, the Securities and
Exchange Commission raised concerns divine hadn't disclosed enough information in
its IPO prospectus. So Filipowski refiled.

Weeks earlier, Filipowski knocked heads with banker Credit Suisse First Boston
over the timing of the IPO. When demand for IPOs evaporated last spring, the bank
advised Filipowski to delay the offering. Filipowski disagreed and fired Credit
Suisse.

Lately, the IPO market has warmed. Shares of StorageNetworks Inc. tripled on
their first day of trading last Friday. But StorageNetworks is in a hot area of
business, offsite-data-storage.

The story is different for Internet incubators, like divine. Publicly traded incubators
like CMGI and Internet Capital Group are trading just above their 52-week lows.

"Investors have a new outlook when it comes to risk and reward," Nichols said.
"They used to be willing to invest in concepts. But now they want a company that's
close to profits or profitable."

Divine hasn't earned a penny. For the three months ended March 31, it had $5.2
million in revenue and lost $44.2 million.

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