Divine was a Chicago-based company that started out as an Internet Incubator named Divine InterVentures. The company was founded by Andrew 'Flip' Filipowski in 1999. Like many other "dot-com" companies, Divine had many tales of excess. The board of directors once had over forty members and included luminaries such as NBA star Michael Jordan. Divine was one of the last Internet companies of this era to go public. Their much-ballyhooed IPO in July, 2000 landed with a resounding thud and never closed more than a few percent above the initial offering price.