You know an acquisition – Disney buying Club Penguin for $350-million – is a really big deal when the Globe & Mail (one of Canada’s national newspapers) decides to run it on the front page!

Club Penguin is a pretty amazing story – starting with the fact it was created in Canada, which is not exactly a hot-bed for cool and popular online start-ups. With more than 700,000 members, who pay between $6 and $58 a year. The fact Club Penguin can actually get people to pay for something is extremely impressive!

The Kelowna, B.C.-based company, which caters to the six to 14-year-old crowd, was started two years ago by Lane Merrifield, Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe. They’ve built the company with no external investors, which means they’ll walk away with at least $117-million each and the possibility to make another $117-million each on an earn-out basis if Club Penguin continues to thrive.

While there’s no doubt venture capitalists were happy to invest in Club Penguin, the fact that Club Penguin choose not to take the money makes you believe the company was a financial success right out of the gate. It’s also another high-profile Canadian start-up to be acquired without VCs being involved – Flickr being the other company that comes to mind.

Update: Webslinger has a list of the “Top Canadian Web Successes”.