Neopets or real pets?

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning on Viacom's acquisition of Neopets, a highly popular website for children and teens.

Visitors to neopets.com adopt an animated, made-up pet on the internet and visit the website to play games and engage in other online activities.

With 25 million registered users, "eight figure" annual revenues, and in the top ten "stickiest" website, according to the newspaper, Neopets was sold for $160 million.

Viacom, the cable and film company, plans to bring Neopets into the real world, planning a feature film and a line of toys to be sold by Target Corp.

Source: "Viacom to Acquire Children's Web Company Neopets," by Joe Flint and Nick Wingfield, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2005.