AOL fails on AIM interoperability promise
WinInfo | at | by Mike
Despite the fact that a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) condition of the AOL Time Warner merger required the company to open up interoperability between its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) product and competition, AOL revealed this week that it has no plans to do so, and likely never did. Instead, the company says it will now focus on alternative ways of achieving interoperability, and the company cited its recent deal with Apple Computer, which will be the first company to ship an AIM-compatible chat client outside of AOL.
AOL's agreement with the FTC stipulated that the company would open up the AIM network to MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and other competitors, allowing users of these widely-trafficked but incompatible networks to exchange text messages, files, and other data. The agreement came after AOL's competitors, including Microsoft, complained to the FTC, stating that the AOL Time Warner merger should not be approved until AOL opened up AIM. Previous to that, Microsoft worked to open up MSN Messenger users to AIM, but was shut out several times by AOL.