

AOL sell ICQ to DST (Russia) - Uncle_Sam
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/aol-to-sell-icq-service-to-d-s-t-for-187-5-million/

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josefresco
Still run ICQ+Pidgin+OTR daily. And while I don't have the coveted 6 digit ICQ
UIN I got a 7 digit so that makes me old.

I wonder if this will increase or decrease the amount of Russian spam I
receive through the service. I know some who get bombarded daily.

~~~
rit
I still have one but I never actually log in - got the 6 digit even (#924218).
I didn't realize it was an active, viable service still. At least at a level
of independent value that makes it worth selling off.

~~~
jetsnoc
I'm #575061. We are the ones in the first million, huh!

It's impressive how quickly a company can lose such an impressive market
share.

~~~
rit
Yup - it was pervasive when I first used it. It was an amazing way to tie in
people from diff. online communities with whom I'd otherwise have much less
interaction.

At one point I recall them moving ICQ To the Oscar (early AIM) protocol but it
was dying by then, replaced with the other 800000 IM systems available.

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bgovern
Since from what I can tell, the biggest user group of the ICQ service is
Russian hackers, the sale is only logical.

~~~
listic
Why hackers? Just Russians. ICQ is very popular in Russia for whatever
historical reason.

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ruslan
There's a great and unstoppable tendency in Russia to switch to Jabber, so I
wonder why would someone want to invest huge pile of money into almost dead
service based on a centuary old technology? Either investors are dumb or
there's some grassroot movement involved.

~~~
jonknee
I knew ICQ was old, but century old technology? Unless it started out as a
telegraph service I think you're confused.

~~~
j_baker
I think he/she was exaggerating.

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j_baker
I think this title should win an award for most three letter acronyms in an HN
title. :-)

~~~
powrtoch
TLA is our DNA.

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TheBranca18
AOL -> ICQ -> AIM/Yahoo -> Gaim -> Pidgin

It's amazing how little things have changed on the instant messenger side
since I started using AIM.

I will forever associate ICQ with that silly Uh Oh! sound when you received a
message.

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c00p3r
Oh, it is a true Russian way of investment - we have money, everything else
does not matter.

AOL should be very happy (and surprised) to get rid of that old crap.

~~~
zavulon
It's not crap. It's the most popular IM service in Russia and a whole bunch of
other countries. I use it daily to talk to friends and business colleagues in
Europe, and ICQ is the only service they use (although more technologically-
oriented use Skype)

~~~
c00p3r
When a lot of people are using something it does not prove that it is not a
crap.

PHP is the best example. =)

~~~
raquo
Investors are not benevolent technology incubators. They need returns on their
money, and the quality of the software side of ICQ is largerly irrelevant
here.

~~~
c00p3r
Returns on ICQ? Did they even requested the data about how many users signs in
and number of messages per day for resent 5 years? =)

