ICQ has lost most of the glory it had a decade ago, but it's still used by 40-50 million unique users per month and is the number one message service in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and some other small countries.
Sources familiar with the situation said interest in buying the asset from two major non-U.S. companies prompted execs at the online service to put a process in place for a deal that will likely occur after AOL becomes an independent company in December.
AOL is set to spin itself off in less than a month from corporate owner Time Warner (TWX), and sources said selling off peripheral properties likes ICQ is part of becoming a smaller, more focused company. Sources added that AOL now wants about $300 million for the property.