According to foreign media reports, on Wednesday AOL released the report of 2010 earnings in the first quarter. The company also announced that its instant messaging services, ICQ was sold to the Russian investment company DST at the cost of 187.5 million U.S. dollars in cash.
Today AOL signed the definitive agreement with 187.5 million U.S. dollars in cash to sell ICQ instant messaging services to the Russian investment company Digital Sky Technologies (DST). AOL is anticipated that this transaction will be completed in the third quarter of this year. In addition, AOL is still considering its social networking site Bebo’s strategic choice, including closing or selling the business this year.
The CEO of DST, Yuri Milner said: "The acquisition of ICQ to our business is to enhance our strategic business in Russia and Eastern Europe. ICQ is a brand with a long history, having a large number of loyal user bases. This will enable us to have the opportunity to further enhance the region's business. "
The CEO of AOL, Tim Armstrong said: "With AOL's continued recovery, we found a good home for ICQ. DST is the leading innovator in investment on the area of Internet. And market in the ICQ has a powerful economic strength. "
Armstrong pointed out that as a service born and operated in Israel, ICQ is a revolutionary Internet company. We wish them as part of DST greater success. "
According to the statistics from Internet Traffic Monitoring Bodies, Comscore, it shows the number of ICQ current global visitors reach 3200 million of every month alone. Among these users, more than 25% are from Russia. ICQ is Russia's largest instant messaging services of local users.
DST was founded in 2005, as one of the largest Internet companies in Russian and Eastern European market. The company is also one of the world's leading investment groups, and focus on Internet-related investments. Previously, DST has invested a number of Internet companies in Russia, including Russian largest social networking site Vkontakte.ru, Russian portal Mail.ru and so on.