December 14, 2009 - 1:06am
A bidding
war over the ICQ instant messaging division of AOL, popular amid 33 million
users worldwide and number 1 instant messaging provider in Russia, currently
involves a number of North American companies.
Amid the companies interested in acquiring ICQ
there are Google, DST, and Nasper.
Google’s interest in ICQ is most likely
because of the widest Russian connection, while the service died off for the
most part in North America.
So, Russian market appeared to be the platform
where they companies have struggled somewhat to gain a foothold, and buying
into an existing customer base is an easy way to make up some market share.