And they killed it from Tumblr.

AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed. As a result we’ve made the decision that we will be discontinuing AIM effective December 15, 2017. We are more excited than ever to continue building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products for users around the world.

Kind of insane to pay way too much money for something, to just turn around and kill it.

All I know is that whatever they think they are going to do, it’ll never have the reach and recognition as AIM.  Maybe there is reverse engineered servers, like Escargot for MSN.