Reports that Sony or News Corp. could snap up Club Penguin highlight the growing allure of such site

Kids who immerse themselves in Club Penguin, the online virtual world for youngsters from 8 to 14, can chat with friends' penguin avatars in icicle-covered cafes and earn coins for accessories like sombreros—a must-have in Antarctica. For Club Penguin's owner, New Horizon Interactive, all that virtual commerce could soon translate into a wad of real loot.

Sony and News Corp. are said to be interested in paying as much as $400 million for the site, based on reports from blogs paidContent.org and GigaOm. Neither Club Penguin nor the would-be suitors would comment. But the reports underscore the growing attractiveness of immersive online worlds as takeover targets and are fueling speculation that a wave of purchases may be on the horizon. Some of tech's titans—including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Time Warner's AOL—have cause to engage in a round of purchases reminiscent of the social network land grab touched off when News Corp. bought MySpace.com for $580 million in 2005.