The company was founded by
Andrew Filipowski in 1999. The company had 38 people on the
board of directors, including
Michael Jordan, and on February 3, 2001, 27 members resigned as the company attempted to streamline its management. In July 2000, as the
dot-com bubble burst, the company became a
public company via an
initial public offering. In February 2001, the company changed its name from Divine Interventures to Divine. In April 2001, the company acquired most of the assets of
MarchFirst for $120 million. In May 2001, the company agreed to acquire RoweCom for $14 million in stock. In July 2001, the company agreed to acquire eShare for $71 million in stock. In August 2001, the company agreed to acquire
Open Market for $59 million in stock. 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. On February 25, 2003, the company filed
bankruptcy. 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. Saratoga Partners then sold the
enterprise content management business to
FatWire. The Open Market patents were acquired by
Soverain Software. ==References==