divine to Consider Other Alternatives including Bankruptcy
divine, inc. (Nasdaq:
DVIN),
the one time Internet incubator, has hired
Broadview International,
a merger and acquisitions firm specializing in information technology,
to help it sell all or part of its business.
Despite efforts over the past several months to minimize operating
expenses, divine's board of directors determined
that the company must seek other alternatives, including asset divestitures
and/or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The news marks the beginning of the
end for one of software's most promising business models.
divine was founded by the one of the most original men in the software business,
Flip Filipowski. Filipowski dropped out of college his freshman year to support
his new family and started work in one of Chicago's first data centers.
He translated that start into one of the most successful careers in technology.
After managing Cullinet and starting DBMS,Inc., he
founded Platinum Technology. Filipowski grew it in ten years from
a startup to the eighth-largest software company in the world.
In 1999, Filipowski sold Platinum Technology to Computer Associates
for $3.6 billion.
He then founded divine based both on his vision of the extended enterprise
and his constitutional inability to pass up a bargain.
divine acquired many assets of failed dot coms in an effort
to create a new company offering the next generation of software.
The prolonged slump in technology spending
put paid to this strategy. Although divine acquired software firms, content providers,
and ASP's, in 2001 77% of divine's revenues came from
professional services.
Some of the companies divine acquired included
SageMaker, marchFIRST, DataBites, Fracta Networks, Open Market, eshare communications,
Synchrony Communications, Intira Corporation, HostOne
RoweCom, Eprise Corporation, SoftMetric, Data Return Corporation,
Northern Light Technology, RWT Corporation,
Delano Technology Corporation, and Vaint.
divine is now involved in active discussions regarding
the potential sale of these businesses.
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