If you're infatuated with Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft and you want her to be yours alone, you'd better be ready to shell out the big bucks because she doesn't come cheap. About GBP £ 300 (US$ 600 million) should do the trick, though.

Publisher SCi recently announced that it is open to being taken over by third parties, and by extension all its intellectual property including the popular Tomb Raider franchise which has thrilled gamers across three gaming generations.

Share prices of SCi jumped from 37.5p to 375.5p immediately after word hit the streets on the company's willingness to sell out. The most eligible suitors at this point are industry heavyweights Warner Bros., Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft.

Preliminary talks are now being held with interested parties but no details have leaked from the negotiations. What's certain, though, is that CEO Jane Cavanagh and property mogul Robert Tchenguiz will cash in on a very sweet deal.

The Tomb Raider franchise celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with the release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which is a remake of the PSX original on the Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, and Sony PlayStation Portable.