According to the Los Angeles Times, Walt Disney Co. is buying the Club Penguin virtual community in a $350-million deal that could eventually be worth as much as $700 million.
Launched in October 2005, Club Penguin has more than 700,000 paid subscribers and 12 million registered users, most of them in the United States and Canada. Visitors can adopt, name, feed and clothe virtual penguins, and they can chat and play games with other users.