AOL Plans To Sell ICQ
November 19, 2009 11:17 AM
AOL has hired Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) as well as Allen and Co. to help sell off ICQ, its instant messaging service. AOL wants to sell ICQ after it becomes an independent company in December.
It is rumored that AOL wants around $300 million from the sale of ICQ. ICQ was once a hot property in online communications and has around 40 to 50 million unique visitors; and it is the No. 1 messaging service in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and other small countries. It is however less popular in the US and UK where Facebook and Twitter have become big players in status-update.
AOL’s AIM is quite popular and is one of the best instant messaging services available. ICQ had been bought from Mirabilis, an Israel based company in 1998 and this raises questions about layoffs at its Israel office which has about 100 employees. These are some of the tough questions that AOL will have to face.
