Reuters, AOL connect IM networks

America Online Inc. (AOL) and Reuters Group PLC have reached a deal to connect their instant messaging (IM) services, offering Reuters users the ability to chat with both their financial services contacts and non-industry friends.

The connectivity, announced Tuesday, will be available in the next version of the Reuters Messaging client, due out in the first quarter of next year. Reuters users will be able to communicate with AOL, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and ICQ users, and the AOL users will be able to add Reuters users to their Buddy Lists.

The deal allows AOL to grow its user base, as well as show U.S. regulatory authorities that it is being more open with its IM network.

For Reuters, the agreement lets it offer users access to one of the largest public IM networks.

Reuters’ goal is to expand the reach of its users within the workflow of financial communities and the AOL deal allows them to do this, David Gurle, Reuters’ executive vice president and global head of collaboration services said in a statement.

Gurle used to head up Microsoft Corp.’s real-time collaboration server software program until he left for Reuters in March. Reuters’ IM product is built on the Microsoft platform.

In an interview in August, Gurle said that Reuters’ messaging system had over 260,000 registered users at more than 4,000 institutions in 120 countries. At that time, Gurle said that interoperability was a top requirement for Reuters’ clients and that the company would be working to provide it over the next six months.

AOL says it 54 percent of enterprise IM users, and 10 million monthly users on its network. The network enables the delivery of 1.5 billion messages daily, AOL said.

Reuters is hoping that its partnership with AOL will give it a leg up against competitors like Bloomberg L.P., which is offering its own instant messaging service for the financial industry.

Separately Tuesday, IM security and management provider FaceTime Communications Inc. said that it was adding support for the Bloomberg instant messaging network into its IM Auditor regulatory compliance product.

Joris Evers in San Francisco contributed to this report.