Mirabilis (company)

Mirabilis (Latin for admirable, amazing) was the name of an Israeli company, which is the popular instant messaging program ICQ has developed. The company was founded in 1996 by four Israelis Arik Vardi, Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir and bought only two years later by AOL.

Originally Mirabilis was funded by Yossi Vardi, the father of Arik Vardi. The businessman who believed in the business idea and ICQ advertised, although the chances of success were assessed as extremely low.

ICQ grew rapidly as more and more users spread the idea by word of mouth and their friends and acquaintances have guided, also to use the program. A strong network effect arose because we can communicate with each other only if both partners are the same system - just ICQ - use.

Although Mirabilis had at that time no revenue, AOL bought the company in 1998 for a total of 407 million U.S. dollars (287 million U.S. dollars, distributed in cash and 120 million U.S. dollars over three years). Although AOL also has its own Instant Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger offers, ICQ was still further developed by AOL. In 2010 there was but sold to the Russian investment company Digital Sky Technologies, ie since September 2010 Mail.ru Group.