AOL sells ICQ to Digital Sky Technologies For $187.5m

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Remember the instant messaging program ICQ? AOL is now selling it to a Russian investment company, Digital Sky Technologies for $187.5 million. The deal makes a loss of AOL as it acquired ICQ for $407 million in 1998.

ICQ was the popular instant messaging chat program that was released in the mid-90s. It came out long before the boom of MSN Messenger and Skype.

The first version of ICQ was released by Mirabilis, where the original concept was created by Israeli students. It was later purchased by AOL in 1998 for $407 million. It’s been confirmed today that AOL has sold ICQ for a mere $187.5 million to the Russian investment company, Digital Sky Technologies. Lower than the $200-300 million analysts had estimated.

The founder of Digital Sky Technologies, Yury Milner, said in a statement that ICQ will be a strategic step in the development of DST’s business in Russia and Eastern Europe. He adds that, “ICQ’s long history and large base of loyal customers provide a huge opportunity for further strengthening DST’s position in the region.”

Time Warner claims that there are over 100 million registered ICQ accounts. However, the actual number of people who still use the chat program is probably significantly lower.

AOL is currently in a position to drop non-core assets to keep itself afloat in the internet industry. It’s been a turbulent start for AOL since it separated from Time Warner at the end of 2009. The company recently reported a first quarter net profit of $34.7 million. That’s a decline of 58 percent compared with the $82.7 million net profit from the previous year.

It’s been announced that the popular UK social networking site, Bebo, will be next on the chopping block. AOL has confirmed that it is trying to either sell or close the less popular social network. AOL purchased Bebo for a reported $850 million in 2008.