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AOL's mergers & acquisitions department lands it Userplane, a provider of private chat and instant message technologies.

The instant message technology used on sites like MySpace and IGN now belongs to AOL. Userplane provides IM and chat technology for more than 100,000 websites on a variety of business models.

Interoperability with AIM should be something that happens once the technology becomes integrated with the overarching AOL infrastructure. Userplane boasts that its technology can deliver streaming audio and video to a targeted audience based on user profiles and demographics.

This would extend AOL's advertising reach to more of the sweet spot demographic 18-35 year olds that marketers covet. Userplane said in a statement that users of its chat and IM average 20 minutes of usage of those services.

Userplane's founders said on their website they were just about to take money from a top venture capitalist when AOL CEO Jonathan Miller came calling:

Through immediate and spirited discussion, we quickly found both companies have mutual interests. We saw that as a unified entity, Userplane could better serve clients and realize its long-term vision, while AOL could best make the strategic leap they know is essential.
Also, Userplane's founders stressed that existing clients will not see any changes to the service. They likewise noted they do not plan any pricing changes for services.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.