Walt Disney Acquires Club Penguin

On August 1, 2007, the Walt Disney Company acquired Club Penguin, one of the fastest-growing online virtual worlds for kids, in a transaction valued at $700 million. Since its launch in October 2005, award-winning Club Penguin has grown to more than 700,000 current paid subscribers, achieving this remarkable subscriber and user growth with very limited marketing effort, relying mostly on strong product and word of mouth awareness among kids.

The Vendors were represented by Petraroia Langford Rush LLP with a team that included Dominic Petraroia, Peter MacPherson and Aaron Dow. Stikeman Elliott LLP provided tax regulatory and other specialist advice with a team that included John Anderson (corporate), Dean Kraus (tax), Wesley Ng (privacy) and Shawn Neylan (regulatory). Latham & Watkins LLP acted as US counsel for the vendors with a team that included David Hernand, Peter Bartle and Win Chevapravatdumrong (corporate), Roxanne Christ (intellectual property), Sam Weiner and Eric Matusak (tax) and David Taub and Larry Seymour (employment & benefits).

The Walt Disney Company was represented by its vice-president and counsel James Kapenstein with Irell & Manella LLP acting as US counsel with a team that included Tony Iler, Peter Juzwiak and Richard Lee (corporate) and Jane Wald (intellectual property). Canadian counsel for Disney was McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP with a team that included Neil Campbell (regulatory), David Dunlop (corporate) and Darryl Hiscocks (employment). Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP provided tax advice with a team that included Bill Bies and Douglas Scott.