Mirabilis was first established by five Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father Yossi Vardi. The founders first met when working for a Tel Aviv software company, Zapa Digital Arts, that specialized in three-dimensional graphic tools for the Internet. In 1996, they left Zapa and began to develop ideas for new internet innovations. They created ICQ in less than two months
ICQ was the first global, GUI-based instant messaging client. The company was quickly acquired by AOL in 1998 for just over $400 million, despite the fact that AOL ran its own IM network, AOL Messenger.
