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Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years - CNA
(www.channelnewsasia.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
No, it was bought by MRG after AOL fought its users and won, so they all left for Skype.
EDIT: Or maybe first by Rambler and then by MRG. Rambler was the Russian search engine I used in 2005, btw. Was an email provider too. I had an email account or two there, don't even remember which. Also narod dot ru (free web hosting, similar to geocities) hasn't yet been bought by Yandex then, and there were ucoz dot ru sites, and borda dot ru free web forums (something like phpbb). ICQ (and later Skype) would be used for real-time conversations in all of these communities. EDIT2: ... which you'd make forums for.