Divine InterVentures delays IPO

Internet incubator Divine InterVentures Inc., (Nasdaq: DVIN) delayed its initial public offering again.

This is the second time the much-anticipated, but controversial, IPO has been put off in two weeks. Like CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI), the company invests in, and nurtures, development stage B2B and infrastructure companies and cashes in when they go public. Divine's biggest challenge may be taking itself public in a market where Internet incubator valuations have fallen off.

The company, founded 14 months ago by entrepreneur Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, has been in registration since December. Underwriters planned to take the company to market by late June, but delayed the pricing by a week to allow the investment bankers a chance to build more orders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's concern that the company had engaged in pre-offering publicity also delayed the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. Because the SEC requires that pre-IPO public disclosures needed to be incorporated in the deal's filings, underwriter Robertson Stephens had to reprint and recirculate the company's prospectus.

The IPO had been put back on the IPO calendar for pricing after the stock market closed Thursday, and was to have begun trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday. Now, it's not set to debut until Monday, Reuters reported.

As well as having bad timing and SEC difficulties, the company has also wrangled with its underwriters. Last month, Filipowski fired Credit Suisse First Boston as divine interVentures' lead underwriter when it advised the company to delay the IPO until this fall.

The company expects raise $412 million from the sale of about 36 million shares, 14.28 million of which will be offered to the public at $13-$15 per share.