Sony’s Talks To Buy ClubPenguin Off
Not sure who’s the other one in the fray, but someone is, and Sony is out. We reported last month that Sony was in advanced talks to acquire the two-year-old kids focused social gaming site ClubPenguin for about $450 million. The talks broke down some days ago, and price was one of the factors…our sources tell us the asking price went up beyond $500 million, and Sony balked at the price. Among the other reason that could have broken the talks, as Staci mentioned in our earlier post: “Sony is trying to get a handle on churn. We’ve also been told the founders are interested in committing some profits to charity and Sony wants to be sure its margins are protected. Why Sony? The subscription base is appealing as are the prospects of fitting it in with Playstation and possibly PSP. No obvious ad potential.”
What we now know is someone else is in the game, but not sure who.
Posted In: Entertainment, Gaming, Social Media, Companies, Sony
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Comments (4)
Jun 15, 2007 9:09 AM
These ClubPenguin guys seem noble, but must be living in a fantasy world. To try to dictate to someone that a portion of the profits have to go to charity I think is insane.
Seems to me that the ClubPenguin guys should take their $500m and spend it how they believe it should be spent, not tell someone else what they should do with their money.
“You can marry my daughter, but you’ll need to have sex with her sister as well.” Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. ;)
Jun 17, 2007 11:55 AM
Sony has already announced a young/female targeted online experience for the PC and PS3 on June 11 called Free Realms that is very much targeting with the same type of content.
http://www.sonyprotectiongroup.com/?/content/view/138/1/
Jun 19, 2007 5:47 PM
Churn…lol.
Want to see churn? Turn it into a paid+advertising site in an attempt to recover an insane purchase price. I know I’ll pull my two kids’ accounts as soon as it happens.
You know Sony would have done it, and whoever else is bidding will do it too.
Nov 10, 2008 1:40 PM
Why!!!
PSP is better then DS!
I could be playing the new cp game
on my PSP!!!
Now I gotta buy a DS!!! :|
But I’m not gonna!
A DS only lasts you like a year then it’s done!
PSP is way better! >.<
~Strancp