Minister of Finance Avraham Shochat yesterday visited the HQ of America-On-Line (AOL) in Virginia, and heard praise for the ICQ software of Israel company Mirabilis, acquired by AOL last year for $407 million.
AOL Deputy Chairman Kenneth Novack said ICQ was one of the most important assets AOL had ever acquired. "People have criticised the high price I paid, but we now have an asset worth up to $3 billion", Novack said.
"In the United States, a baby is born every eight seconds, but a new member joins ICQ every second. When we acquired ICQ, it presented 12 million listed users. It now has 36 million", he added.
According to Novack, the ICQ division is also "an important addition to AOL's management culture, a sort of spice. The Israeli guys don't always accept our culture, and that is a positive process from our point of view".
"After we acquired ICQ", Novack added, "our appreciation for Israeli technology increased. We may explore the possibility of encouraging technological deals in Israel. We, too, take an interest in what is happening in Israel. Yossi Vardi (one of the Mirabilis investors) helped us study what is going on over there".
Novack said his company is not built for contacts with new start-up companies. "A start-up company must have an initial investor, who will help it liaise with us. We get lots of offers, and cannot always respond as we would wish", he said.
Also participating in the visit were Ministry of Finance director-general Avi Ben-Bassat and Bank Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama.
Published by Israel's Business Arena September 28, 1999