Founded in 1987 by Andrew Filipowski, this computer software company was one of the fastest-growing firms in the Chicago area during the 1990s. The company began by specializing in database software and then moved into other software products. In 1989, Platinum grossed $6 million in sales and employed about 40 people. Nine years later, the company's annual sales reached about $1 billion, and it employed 5,000 people around the country, including 1,500 in the Chicago area. In 1999, Platinum was purchased for $3.5 billion by Computer Associates, a larger competitor based in New York that assumed both its operations and its name. Filipowski soon used some of his proceeds to begin an Internet “incubator” company called Divine InterVentures Inc., which, after being billed as the harbinger of a burgeoning Internet industry in Chicago, quickly sank along with the rest of the high-tech industry of the early 2000s.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.