The annual gathering in Idaho for dealmakers will include Fox Corp.’s Lachlan Murdoch, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Activision Blizzard chief Bobby Kotick.
Allen & Co’s. famous yet secretive gathering in Sun Valley, Idaho, begins early next month and perhaps the most notable media executives who won’t be attending are Joe Ianniello and Bob Bakish, the CEOs of CBS and Viacom, respectively.
The annual convention, of sorts, is renowned for hosting the leading executives and owners in media who oftentimes talk business, politics and, most notably, sometimes lay the groundwork for blockbuster mergers.
In the case of CBS and Viacom, merger negotiations are allegedly already underway as Shari Redstone and her ailing father, Sumner, control them both and are eager to combine them in order to compete more seriously with Walt Disney after its purchase of most of 21st Century Fox and AT&T in the wake of its acquisition of Time Warner. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Shari Redstone will attend this year’s Sun Valley retreat.
Ianniello didn’t attend last year, either, while his predecessor, Leslie Moonves, was a frequent guest in Sun Valley before he was officially ousted from CBS for sexual misconduct in September. Bakish, on the other hand, was “blackballed” from the event after complaining about the way Allen & Co., a boutique banking firm, handled a deal that involved Viacom, Fox Business reported. (Viacom didn’t respond to a request for comment).
