Sources inform ''Globes'' that ICQ has fired 14 employees in Israel, 10% of its labor force of 150. The company declined to comment.
Mirabilis, which invented the instant messaging service, ICQ , was founded by Dr. Yossi Vardi, Yair Goldfinger, and others in 1996. AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) acquired it for $407 million in 2008, after ICQ won strong popularity.
ICQ lost its dominance over the years, and was acquired by Russia's Digital Sky Technologies (DST) for $187.5 million in April 2010. ICQ users has fallen steadily to 34 million a month, compared with 330 million a month for Microsoft Corporation's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Messenger service.
ICQ has also suffered from the rise of Facebook, which offers its 600 million users chat capabilities, and from chat services offered by smartphone applications such as WhatsApp and Viber.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 3, 2011
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