Some information appeared that a certain Russian Internet investment group has entered negotiations with AOL to sell its ICQ instant-messaging service.
According to a Russian newspaper Vedomosti, this Russian company is DST (Digital Sky Technologies). Digital Sky Technologies that based both in London and Moscow, made investments in Mail.ru, Forticom, and vKontakte. The company is talking to purchase ICQ between $200 million and $250 million. AOL bought ICQ in 1998 for $400 million.
In Russia ICQ is the No.1 instant-messaging service. It has near 8.4 visitors every month according to market researcher ComScore.
Time Warner informed that AOL have hired investment bankers Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co. to find a buyer for its instant-messaging service ICQ.
Digital Sky Technologies is one of the leading Internet groups in Russia, made a $200 million investment in Facebook in May. Presumably Facebook is valued at $10 billlion.
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