History
Mirabilis was first established in June 1996 by five Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father Yossi Vardi. They recognized that many people were online accessing the Internet through a non-UNIX operating system, and that there was no software that enabled an immediate connection between them.
What was missing was the technology for locating and connecting the users of the Windows operating system.
The technology Mirabilis developed for ICQ was distributed free of charge. The technology's success caused AOL to acquire Mirabilis on June 8, 1998, for US$287 million up front and $120 million in additional payments over three years. At the time, this was the highest price ever paid to purchase an Israeli technology company.
ICQ's management changed at the end of 2003. Under the leadership of the new CEO, Orey Gilliam, who also assumed the responsibility for all of AOL's messaging business in 2007, ICQ resumed its growth and turned into a highly profitable company, and one of AOL's most successful businesses.
Eliav Moshe replaced Gilliam in 2009 and became ICQ's managing director.
Read more about this topic: ICQ
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It is true that this man was nothing but an elemental force in motion, directed and rendered more effective by extreme cunning and by a relentless tactical clairvoyance .... Hitler was history in its purest form.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)