“The next skirmish in the instant-messaging war is expected
to take place Thursday in a Federal Communications Commission
hearing room. There, Ross Bagully, CEO of Tribal Voice, will
express industry concerns about America Online’s repeated attempts
to shut instant-messaging rivals them out of its IM
equation.”
“Rivals desperately care what AOL does. Between its AIM and ICQ
offerings, AOL owns the lion’s share of the IM market with an
estimated 110 million to 120 million users.”
“The FCC hearing will examine the impact of the proposed merger
of AOL and Time Warner (stock: TWX) and what their combined might
would mean to consumers and competitors. AOL is now getting the
kind of public scrutiny once reserved by Microsoft, Mak said.”