Digital Sky Technologies, the largest internet firm in Eastern Europe has agreed to buy instant messaging platform ICQ from AOL at a cost of $187.5 million. The platform, while not the most popular in the United States is still considered the most popular in Russian and various other parts of Europe.
AOL recently announced a 58 percent drop in profits and was eager to offload services they didn’t fully support. Digital Sky also owns a stake in various other internet firms, including Facebook app creator Zynga, makers of Farmville.
ICQ was purchased by AOL in 1996 and offers support in 16 languages. According to Electronista :
ICQ has over 32 million unique visitors per month. It has a large presence in Russia, Germany, Czech Republic and Israel, but has lost much of its traction in North America and Europe to AIM and Windows Live.
Does anyone in the U.S. still use ICQ, let us know, just out of curiosity.
