Disney Buys Club Penguin for $350m (+$350m more Later)

Big news for kinds virtual worlds: See news item here

Disney announced Wednesday that it purchased Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada-based Club Penguin, a rapidly growing online virtual world for kids.

According to an SEC filing, Disney bought all the outstanding shares of site operator New Horizons Interactive for $350 million.

Disney could spend up to $350 million more if New Horizons hits “predefined earnings targets” for fiscal 2008 and 2009.

Now as new-media-VCs we love it (big exit)… and hate it (why we did not think about it?). 🙂
(Also: please note the very clean – no ad design. Can Disney, will Disney keep it?)