Mashable.com
Club Penguin, the popular virtual world for kids, is missing in action. The Walt Disney Company, the site’s owner, failed to renew the domain name in a timely fashion. The Club Penguin domain, according to WHOIS information for the site, expired one week ago on June 13. It was taken offline Monday morning. As a result, some of the site’s more than 12 million users awoke to a generic domain renewal page instead of the Club Penguin site and took to Twitter and social media channels to chatter about their disappointment.Club Penguin users, fear not. The site has not been hacked, nor has it been shut down. In fact, Disney has renewed its registration, and the Club Penguin blog reassures users that its MMORPG is back up for most players and will be available soon for others. Founded in 2005, Club Penguin was acquired by Disney in 2007 for up to $700 million — $350 million in cash and up to $350 million more based on performance targets.
Cbsnews.com
CBS) - Break out the Advil, parents! The popular children's gaming site Club Penguin was offline and re-directing to a parked domain site all morning.
We're guessing the masterminds at Disney haven't learned from the Dallas Cowboy's URL debacle last year. ClubPenguin.com expired last week and was in URL limbo this morning. Whois.domaintools.com said their status as "Pending Renewal or Deletion."
Blog ClubPenguinInsider.com reported that Club Penguin denied rumors that the site had been shut down and said that it would go back online within a few hours.
The site, which launched in 2005 and bought by the Walt Disney Company in 2007 for $350 million, is an online world with mini games and chat rooms. The massively multi-player online role-playing domain claims to have 12 million members and is basically a World of Warcraft for tots - without the creepy ghosts and guilds.
Although the site went back up around noon, users can't seem to log in to play. People are taking to Twitter and reporting...
"Club Penguin is DOWN?!: When I tried to log onto Club Penguin today, this is what appeared!Club Penguin is down!..." -Papichulo366
"ClubPenguin.com, sold for $350 million dollars to Disney, appear to have let their domain expire..." -EwanToo
"Club Penguin Site Down Update. clubpenguin.com is now online but it you are unable to play the game still as..." -MrSnowman3
Cnet.com
Disney was willing to pay up to $700 million for Club Penguin, but apparently forgot to renew its domain. Parents can't be happy.
If you go to Club Penguin--like my daughter did--you may get an odd-looking Network Solutions page. It's the page you get when you haven't renewed a domain name. The page has been down for a good chunk of the day. CBS News reported that Club Penguin returned about noon, but a lot of folks still can't get to the site. The outage has been widely reported on Club Penguin blogs such as the Club Penguin Insider.
"The domain name has expired, but has been restored, but everything is getting back to normal," said a Disney spokeswoman. Some players can't log on, but most of the service has been restored.
Disney's customer support line has been swamped with calls from parents and the company said it will review procedures to avoid this issue again. According to this lookup, Club Penguin's domain expired June 13. A week later, Disney's site is gone.
You'd think a company that spent $350 million in cash with an equal amount in potential earn-outs would at least mark its domain name calendars.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20072698-93/disneys-club-penguin-domain-name-lapses/#ixzz1Px06n8lV
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