OK, let's see if you can follow this...

Back in 1999, I went to work for a consulting company in Chicago called Whittman-Hart, as a Notes Administrator for the company's infrastructure (not as a consultant for the company). I had used them on a project back in 1996-97 to bring my then company's Corporate HQ onto Notes. I liked the company, they had a good rep in the industry, so I was very excited to join them. The CEO, Bob Bernard, formed the company in the mid to late 80's (if I remember correctly), and in 1999 Whittman-Hart had a market capitalization of $4.47 billion. Not too shabby. Then comes the merger that Bob steered with USWeb/CKS to create an Internet consultancy, marchFIRST - 9,000 employees worldwide and about $1 billion in annual sales. I was now officially with a dotcom. And then - *BUST*. Bob sells parts of marchFIRST that was the core of the old Whittman-Hart to his buddy Andrew "Flip" Filipowski at divine (in a sweetheart deal), just before marchFIRST declares bankruptcy (and subsequent liquidation). I'm then at divine on a 60-day contract for transition services for "Divine Whittman-Hart", which ended June 1, 2001 and ended my journey. But, to continue the story, divine doesn't do well either, and it, too, declares bankruptcy (after being sued for fraud by one of its own subsidiaries).

Flash forward to today. Bob Bernard outbids everyone and buys back what remains of the former Whittman-Hart Inc., for $6 Million, which will go to marchFIRST's estate to defray more than $1 billion in pending claims. And so the circle goes...