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AOL Instant Messaging comes under anti-trust scrutiny

By Sarah Left

Published: Thursday 15 June 2000

US anti-trust officials are looking into AOL's stranglehold on the instant messaging market, as part of the investigation in the Internet firm's proposed $350bn merger with media giant, Time Warner.

AOL's competitors in the instant messaging market have complained to federal officials about the company's alleged monopolisation of the market.

Competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo! have found themselves locked out of AOL's Instant Messaging, which does not interoperate with other instant messaging software.