ICQ to take over future AIM development

[Jeff]

America Online is shifting development of the popular AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) software to it's subsidiary ICQ Israel. Ynet News reports:

ICQ Israel will soon be responsible for the software development of AOL instant messenger, or AIM, following a recent decision by the company.

ICQ Israel has already begun preparing for the shift, although the company has not announced intentions of hiring additional staff at this time.

In 1998, AOL spent over $400 million on the purchase of Mirabilis, the Israeli company that produced ICQ two years earlier. After the purchase, ICQ continued to run its international activities from Israel, as a subsidiary of AOL.

In turn, AOL continued to run AIM and ICQ as independent instant messaging products, although the company’s decision means both products will be developed by ICQ Israel.

ICQ Israel currently has about 100 employees in Israel, half of which work in development.

[Fanatic]

The ICQ team has done some cool stuff over the years, although the UI for their namesake program is pretty dated. But then, so is AIM.

It's interesting that AOL has essentially "outsourced" further AIM development to them. In a way, it makes sense because between the two programs (ICQ and AIM) they own a significant share of the IM market. Why not leverage the same development team and maybe look for ways to further unite the two (yeah, I know they're already interoperable).

On the flip side, I bet there's a few US-based AIM staffers who are less than pleased.