| To: Sr K who wrote (126) | 8/7/2000 11:08:52 AM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | DLJ and Robertson Stephens initiate coverage with buy ratings:
biz.yahoo.com
Monday August 7, 9:13 am Eastern Time
RESEARCH ALERT - Divine InterVentures started
NEW YORK, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette on Monday said it initiated coverage on Internet holding company
Divine InterVentures Inc. (NasdaqNM:DVIN - news) as a buy, with a price target of $20.
-- said the Chicago-based company, which went public last month, invests in Internet infrastructure and business-to-business electronic commerce companies.
-- said the firm has made investments in 53 companies and has about $310 million in cash for future investments.
-- Shares of Divine InterVentures closed Friday at 8-1/2, below its 52-high of 12-7/16 and under its opening price of $9 a share.
biz.yahoo.com
Monday August 7, 10:33 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Robertson Stephens
Robertson Stephens Daily Growth Stock Update On DVIN, IMNY, SWCM,
CPTH, GSPN, and VSEA
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by Robertson Stephens, a member of the National
Association of Securities Dealers, CRD number 41271:
INTERNET
Initiating Coverage:
Divine interVentures (Nasdaq: DVIN - news)
Buy
Michael Graham, Internet
``We are initiating coverage of Divine interVentures, a leading Internet incubator,'' said Graham. ``Divine is focused on two fast-growing sectors of the new economy: B2B software and marketplaces and Internet infrastructure software and services. We believe incubators represent an attractive way for public investors to gain access to the private markets, and believe Divine's influence in its target market enables excellent access to the next generation of technology companies springing up from this region.'' |
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| To: stockman_scott who wrote (128) | 8/8/2000 11:46:12 AM | | From: Edwin S. Fujinaka | | | | Ecoprentice?<G>. More on the "Internet Zaibatsu."
Tuesday August 8, 11:03 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: divine interVentures
Microsoft, Cisco Systems, divine interVentures Executives Headline Event To Help Midwest Entrepreneurs Grow Successful E-Businesses
First-Ever ecoprentice(TM) Event Scheduled for Sept. 27-28 at the Chicago Theatre
CHICAGO, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds of Internet and high-tech entrepreneurs will converge on Chicago this fall for ecoprentice(TM), the new economy apprenticeship, designed to help entrepreneurs learn the high-level strategies and in-the-trenches tactics for successfully launching and growing an e-business. The event is scheduled for Sept. 27-28, 2000, at the Chicago Theatre.
The first-of-its-kind event in the Midwest will offer entrepreneurs inspiration and guidance from new economy leaders at Arthur Andersen, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - news); Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - news); divine interVentures, inc. (Nasdaq: DVIN - news); Radiowave.com, Inc.; MVP.com; Bear Stearns & Co. (NYSE: BSC - news); and Inktomi Corp. (Nasdaq: INKT - news).
Through the two-day ecoprentice conference, participants will:
-- Gain access to highly successful e-business entrepreneurs, venture
capitalists, industry analysts and executives from leading marketing,
technology and business consulting firms.
-- Compete with other entrepreneurs in a business plan competition, judged
by a panel of distinguished Internet business executives. The winner
will receive a services package that includes six months of workspace,
marketing, recruiting and accounting services. Open to attendees of the
event only, all business plans must be submitted via the ecoprentice
Web site by 5 p.m. CST Sept. 11, 2000.
-- Join an ongoing, interactive community where conference participants
can continue to share ideas and maintain contacts, as well as
participate in weekly chats with event panelists.
``ecoprentice offers entrepreneurs a tremendous opportunity to turn their business ideas into reality,'' said Andrew ``Flip'' Filipowski, chairman and CEO of divine interVentures and a keynote speaker at the event. ``Through ecoprentice, entrepreneurs will hear directly from men and women who have mastered the elements of building a successful e-business and then apply those lessons to their own companies. In addition, ecoprentice creates an ongoing community that participants will rely on to share best practices and create strategic alliances.''
ecoprentice sponsors include Arthur Andersen, divine interVentures, Katten Muchin Zavis, Forbes, Inc., and Red Herring Communications.
ecoprentice has enlisted many of the top e-business thinkers and doers for the event. Speakers include Jerry Colonna, managing partner of Flatiron Partners; Red Herring Senior Editor Peter Henig; Classified Ventures, Inc., CEO David G. Israel; uBid CEO Greg Jones; Rieva Lesonsky, senior vice president and editorial director of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.; Anthony Priore, vice president of marketing for yesmail.com; and Bret Arsenault, chief technical officer for Microsoft eBusiness Solutions.
The admission fee for ecoprentice is $795 through Aug. 25 and $895 from Aug. 26 to Sept. 26. Admission is $995 at the door, space permitting. Register for the event at the ecoprentice Web site, www.ecoprentice.com .
About ecoprentice
Ecoprentice, the new economy apprenticeship, is the premier two-day event providing Internet entrepreneurs access to new economy masters and their insights and strategies for successfully launching and growing an e-business. The event is scheduled for Sept. 27-28, 2000, at the Chicago Theatre in Chicago. For additional details, see the ecoprentice Web site, www.ecoprentice.com .
SOURCE: divine interVentures |
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| To: stockman_scott who wrote (130) | 8/18/2000 2:40:34 AM | | From: Sr K | | | | By GUAP, the Company's performance was up 2% for the quarter:
Average divine Equity Ownership Percentage
6/30/2000: 51% in 52 Associates Companies = 26.52 average divine entities
3/31/2000: 52% in 50 Associated Companies = 26 average divine entities
Fortunately, NEOF was down to 1.5%. |
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| To: Sr K who wrote (131) | 8/18/2000 10:30:30 AM | | From: stockman_scott | | | | NEOF has been a disaster for DVIN and other investors as well....its now trading at less than the price DVIN bought its shares for. They pushed this company out onto the public market way too early, IMO. I also feel DVIN rushed and made many investments they are now starting to regret....their burn rate is high...DVIN is also losing some of their top talent (I have heard this from insiders as well as read it in newsletters like The May Report)...I hope they survive BUT I feel DVIN is like 'damaged goods' in the out of favor incubator space. I will watch this stock from the sidelines. I am fully invested in the fiber optics field -- at the moment I really love AVCI and JNPR....Good luck investing...;-)
Best Regards,
Scott |
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| To: astyanax who wrote (92) | 8/18/2000 4:47:16 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | From today's Chicago Sun Times:
suntimes.com
Despite loss, divine says future
bright
August 18, 2000
BY JESSICA MADORE FITCH BUSINESS REPORTER
In its first public statement since going public in July, divine interVentures inc. was
predictably upbeat about the future, although the company's financial results were far
less sunny.
Revenue more than doubled last quarter, but divine's net loss nearly doubled as well.
The Lisle-based Internet incubator reported a loss of $75.4 million in the second
quarter, compared with a $44.2 million loss in the first quarter. Revenue rose to
$12.1 million, up from $5.2 million.
Divine's consolidated financial results, however, only include 26 of its 52 associated
companies, and therefore don't reflect the breadth of its financial position. In lieu of
this, divine offered unaudited aggregate revenue for its 52 associated companies:
$60.7 million in the second quarter, a 54 percent increase over $39.3 million in the
first quarter.
During a conference call Thursday, founder Andrew J. "Flip" Filipowski reminded
the audience that divine is still a very young company, having recently celebrated its
first birthday.
"We're pleased with the progress of the companies in our portfolio and proud of our
people's efforts to create value by working in concert," Filipowski said.
Mike Cullinane, divine's chief financial officer, said divine is burning through $3
million each month and has about $327 million in cash and securities on hand.
"Things look better than I expected," said George Nichols, an analyst at
Morningstar, the Chicago-based financial information company.
But in light of the finicky public market, Filipowski has become more conservative
about divine's investments.
In the first quarter of the year, divine spent $200.6 million of $247.3 million of
deployed capital on new investments. But in the past three months, divine spent just
$76.7 million of $324 million in deployed capital on new investments.
"They are investing more of their money in their current portfolio companies, rather
than bringing new companies into the fold," Nichols said. "They need to nurture their
own companies, rather than stretch themselves even thinner."
Shareholders boosted shares of divine before the earnings announcement. The stock
finished Thursday up 53 cents at $7.50, still below the $9 IPO price and its high of
$12.43 3/4. |
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| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (133) | 8/21/2000 9:21:20 AM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | From Sunday's Chicago Tribune:
chicagotribune.com
Pressed for time, Divine
realigns
By Barbara Rose
and Rob Kaiser
Tribune Staff Writers
August 20, 2000
It's a good thing there aren't any nameplates on
managers' doors at Mercantec Inc.
Since February, when Divine Interventures Inc. bought
40 percent of Naperville-based Mercantec for $23.5
million, four new executives have been installed and at
least as many have left.
Divine's team slashed Mercantec's marketing budget and
pushed the firm to strengthen its ties with big Internet
service providers that can help it sell its
electronic-commerce software to small and midsize
businesses.
"They are the most active venture capitalists I have ever
worked with," says Tom Lewicki, Mercantec's former
chief financial officer, who runs a consulting practice in
Champaign.
Divine can't afford to be passive.
The year-old company is among the boldest of hundreds
of incubators that sprang up around the U.S. during last
year's Internet euphoria, when investors snapped up
shares of companies with scant financial histories.
Now, with Internet stocks off more than 50 percent
since April, Divine is trying to persuade investors that its
business model will work, even in a market that is
soured on risky start-ups.
That won't be easy.
Only a handful of the 53 companies in which Divine
bought stakes are profitable, and two-thirds are
expected to continue losing money next year.
Divine is cutting expenses and preparing to let some
start-ups fail while pushing more promising ones as
quickly as possible toward mergers, sales or public
offerings—at higher valuations, it is hoped, than those at
which Divine invested.
"We are very realistic in that some of [the companies]
will survive and some of them won't," founder and chief
executive Andrew "Flip" Filipowski told analysts last
week. "It becomes clearer over time which we will focus
on and which we won't."
There is little time to waste.
Divine raised a total of $338 million from public
investors and big corporations last month enough to
meet its working capital and cash needs for at least 12
months.
But Divine needs to prove quickly that it can produce
winning companies in order to build credibility and boost
its stock price so that it can return to the market later for
more money, people who follow the company say.
"We believe there's some great companies [in Divine's
portfolio]," says local venture capitalist George Garrick,
one of Divine's 43 directors and former CEO of Internet
marketer Flycast Communications Corp., now part of
CMGI Inc.
"But until some of them start going public with
multibillion valuations," Garrick adds, "we're not going to
know."
So far, investors don't share Garrick's confidence.
Divine's stock has trended down to the $7 area since its
$9 per-share offering July 12.
That's barely higher than the $6 price (adjusted for a
6-to-1 reverse split at the IPO) paid last year by early
private investors—including a high-profile board of
Chicago CEOs who backed Filipowski's vision for
building a powerful Internet consortium.
Employee option prices range from $4.50 to $13.50,
split-adjusted, which means that recruits who were
banking on a windfall when Divine went public are
sorely disappointed.
Nonetheless, backers such as San Francisco-based
brokerage Robertson Stephens, the lead underwriter for
Divine's IPO, view the stock as a good long-term
investment worth as much as $35 per share, based on
the potential market value of Divine's holdings.
Filipowski's team has been working with Divine's
companies to revamp their business plans in light of
investors' demand that start-ups offer convincing
timetables for becoming profitable.
For many firms, that is requiring a big adjustment from
last year, when venture capitalists favored spending
aggressively to gain advantage in the race to capture
customers and grow sales.
"We're concentrating on plans that allow [companies] to
break even in the shortest amount of time … even if it
means sacrificing some on the growth," Filipowski told
analysts.
Divine also is looking to combine complementary
companies into bigger enterprises that can be profitable
faster. One scenario calls for merging Divine's Internet
services providers—firms offering Web design, strategy,
public relations, real estate and other services—into a
single company called Charisma.
The mood at Divine's wide-ranging companies,
meanwhile, varies as widely as the companies'
prospects.
At Web Design Group in Chicago one of Divine's
profitable companies—the staff has more than doubled,
to 60, since January.
"I think everyone is cautious about the stock right now,"
says Charles Stevenson, chief operating officer, who
started the company five years ago in an apartment. "We
wish it had done better."
Others are bluntly pragmatic.
"We wanted a couple of things [from Divine] some cash,
to solidify our management team and to move from
working with start-ups to mainstream clients," says Nate
Weersing, founder and CEO of Westbound Consulting
Inc., an integration services firm with programmers here
and in India.
"Would it be great if Divine were the greatest thing since
sliced bread? Yeah, but we got what we wanted. We
made the [partnership] work."
At Mercantec, which reported a slim $1.5 million in
sales last year, Divine's revamp left hard feelings.
Several former employees say the company needed
better focus, but that they felt bowled over when
Divine's recruits took charge.
"A lot of them didn't know a thing about software or the
Internet," says a former employee. "They were a little
heavy-handed."
Mercantec CEO Andy Parker disagrees. "It's not like
[Divine] pushed people down our throats," he said. "The
company was a little screwed up and we brought in
some people … who could help fix it."
At Closerlook Inc., a growing digital strategy and design
firm with 1999 sales of $7.4 million, investment bankers
are starting to call on founder and CEO David
Ormesher—a sign the company may be considered a
promising IPO prospect, though Ormesher is in no
hurry. Divine invested $17.5 million in February for a 43
percent stake.
Motorola Inc. joined Divine in an $18 million investment
in Perceptual Robotics Inc., which offers software that
allows Internet users to operate remote cameras. The
4-year-old firm recently moved to Chicago from
Evanston with the help of Divine's majority-owned real
estate services firm, Dotspot.
Unlike companies such as Mercantec, Perceptual
Robotics is gearing up to spend more on marketing.
"We could become profitable relatively easily by cutting
back the rate at which we're investing," says CEO Paul
Cooper. "For us, it's really a question of how much we
want to invest in being the leaders in our market.… We
plan to invest to grow for at least another 18 months."
As for Divine's overall prospects, insiders say
Filipowski's team is convinced the company's portfolio
includes at least a few bright stars.
"That's certainly what investors are hoping for, those
home-run hits," says Paul Bard, analyst at Renaissance
Capital in Connecticut.
Bard's firm declined to invest in Divine's IPO, but he
believes incubators as a class have big potential.
Says Bard: "All it takes is a small number of really strong
investments in one of these companies' portfolios to
really do well." |
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| To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (134) | 10/5/2000 8:00:10 PM | | From: Glenn Petersen | | | | DVIN departs from Austin:
chicagotribune.com
Divine dumps planned Austin incubator
By Erik Ahlberg
Dow Jones Newswires
October 5, 2000
Beleaguered Divine InterVentures has backed away from plans to start an incubator project in Austin, Texas, the
company confirmed today.
Divine had planned to build the Austin incubator community in about 500,000 square feet of office space with the
help of two of its executives recruited from Dell Computer Corp.
Other similar projects in Chicago and Seattle are on hold until market conditions for technology and dot-com
companies improve, the company said.
"Right now we prefer to apply our resources toward our family of companies rather than invest significantly in new
opportunities," said Chief Financial Officer Michael Cullinane.
Sources said the Austin project could have cost upwards of $50 million to $100 million.
The moves fall in line with the company's belt-tightening strategy from earlier in the year. By capping its rapid
spending to about $3 million a month from $13 million a month, Divine can more easily focus on its portfolio of
more than 50 companies, said stock analyst George Nichols of Morningstar Inc. of Chicago.
"This is a sign of good things for them," Nichols said. "They need to focus on the areas that they know best."
Divine had not yet committed any significant capital toward the Austin project but the move nonetheless
demonstrates the tough environment faced by most technology and Internet-related companies this year, said
analyst Sara Rashtchy of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
"We're still seeing casualties in the dot-com space," Rashtchy said. The venture capital markets have largely dried
up, he said, and even existing companies are having trouble beyond the initial investment stage.
So what does that mean for a company like Divine?
"It's definitely bad," Rashtchy said. Beyond the capital crunch, the bad market for initial public offerings means that
parent companies like divine can't expect to get much in return even if they do take firms public, he said.
Divine stands to gain once technology companies get aggressive in the merger and acquisition stage, Rashtchy said.
Instead of relying on public markets, companies will only be reliant on one another for deals, he said.
But it won't come without a wait, and Divine's shares are already suffering. The stock recently traded at $3.13,
down 18 percent or 69 cents on volume of 432,600 compared with an average daily volume of 494,200. |
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