Mirabilis
Mirabilis was the
Israeli company that produced
ICQ ("I seek you"), which in the 1990s was the most popular form of Instant Messenger. Mirabilis was founded in
1996, and was purchased by AOL less than two years later.
AOL ran ICQ and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) as independent products, which helped to create an illusion of a competetive marketplace. Eventually AIM and ICQ were merged, beginning in roughly 2001.