Divine, Inc.

Divine, Inc.

Founded	1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Founder	Andrew Filipowski
Defunct	April 2003; 21 years ago (2003-04)
Fate	Bankruptcy and liquidation
Headquarters	Chicago
Revenue	$199 million (2001)
Net income	-$369 million (2001)
Total assets	$874 million (2001)
Total equity	$251 million (2001)
Number of employees	3,600 (2001)
Footnotes / references [1]

Divine, Inc. (stylized in lowercase), originally Divine Interventures, was a company that invested in internet companies during the dot-com bubble. The company was originally modeled after CMGI but changed its business plan after the bubble burst.^[2]

The company's tagline was "an Internet Zaibatsu" and the company's goal was to create "a family of businesses that work collaboratively to create mutual opportunity and gain."^[3]

In 2003, it filed bankruptcy and underwent liquidation after executives were accused of looting a subsidiary.

History

The company was founded by Andrew Filipowski in 1999.

The company had 38 people on board of directors, including Michael Jordan, and on February 3, 2001, 27 members resigned as the company attempted to streamline its management.^[4]

In July 2000, as the dot-com bubble burst, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.^[5][6]

In February 2001, the company changed its name from Divine Interventures to Divine.^[2]

In April 2001, the company acquired most of the assets of MarchFirst for $120 million.^[7][8]

In May 2001, the company agreed to acquire RoweCom for $14 million in stock.^[9]

In July 2001, the company agreed to acquire eShare for $71 million in stock.^[10]

In August 2001, the company agreed to acquire Open Market for $59 million in stock.^[11]

In January 2003, creditors of RoweCom filed a lawsuit against Divine, claiming that executives fraudulently transferred $73.7 million that was due to publishers, before abandoning the business.^[12]

On February 25, 2003, the company filed bankruptcy.^[13]

In April 2003, Divine's assets were sold at auction to Saratoga Partners, Golden Gate Private Equity, Little Bear Investment, and Outtask, for a total of $54 million.^[14] Saratoga Partners then sold the enterprise content management business to FatWire.^[15] The Open Market patents were acquired by Soverain Software.

References

1. "divine, inc. 2001 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
2. Rose, Barbara (February 14, 2001). "Divine Difference In Filipowski's Plan". Chicago Tribune.
3. Rose, Barbara (January 22, 2000). "Divining Divine InterVentures". Crain Communications.
4. "FORM 8-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 2, 2001.
5. "Divine interVentures' IPO Disappoints Wall Street". The Wall Street Journal. July 13, 2000.
6. Kaiser, Rob (July 13, 2000). "Divine Shares Fizzle On 1st Day Of Trading". Chicago Tribune.
7. "marchFIRST files Chap. 11". CNN. April 12, 2001.
8. "Divine acquires MarchFirst offices". American City Business Journals. April 3, 2001.
9. GREENMAN, CATHERINE (May 25, 2001). "Divine In Stock Deal For Rowecom". The New York Times.
10. Rose, Barbara (July 10, 2001). "Divine's buying spree continues". Chicago Tribune.
11. Sullivan, Brian (August 16, 2001). "Divine to buy Open Market". Computerworld.
12. Kaiser, Rob (January 29, 2003). "Lawsuit: Divine looted company". Chicago Tribune.
13. "Divine Inc. files for Chapter 11". The Register. February 27, 2003.
14. Johnsson, Julie (May 2, 2003). "'Flip' not a bidder for Divine assets". Crain Communications.
15. "FatWire Completes Acquisition of Divine's Enterprise Content Management Business" (Press release). Business Wire. June 2, 2003.