Disney has made its first acquisition in social networking buying Club Penguin, which operates an online virtual world for children, for a fee that could eventually rise to $700 million.The deal bolsters its presence in digital entertainment.

Unlike social networking sites for older audiences, such as MySpace and Facebook, Club Penguin has a subscription-based business model. It has more than 700,000 paid subscribers and 12 million “activated” users, primarily in the US and Canada.

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