Divine Agrees To Sell Assets to Private Equity Group

CATALOG AGE has learned that bankrupt software and services provider Divine has an agreement to sell substantially all of its assets to Golden Gate Private Equity and its DS&MS Newco affiliate for $38 million in cash and assumption of some debt.

Chicago-based Divine, which this past fall had charged several e-commerce and catalog companies with patent infringement, has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since late February.

Under the bankruptcy code, the April 9 offer is subject to higher bids in a court-supervised auction. According to Divine’s Website, final results of the auction are scheduled for April 30. In its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filed Feb. 25, Divine listed $271.3 million in assets and $191.9 million in liabilities as of Dec. 31, 2002.