Summer shined on the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen & Company’s annual gathering of media, finance and tech titans this week.
But the storm clouds brewing over an entertainment industry facing unprecedented disruption from AI and other tech innovations means possible M&A deals are certain to be raised in Idaho among power brokers at the annual Sun Valley Conference during the usual hiking, golf and rafting on their schedules.
The invite-only Allen event, nicknamed “summer camp for billionaires,” had Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav captured by photographers as they arrived at the Sun Valley lodge for the annual gathering.
Iger recently turned thumbs down to following Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast in splitting off some legacy TV assets from future-facing streaming platforms. But Sun Valley watchers will be looking to see how Iger gets to grips with extracting most out of Disney+ profit-wise as that platform chases streaming market leader Netflix.
Other Sun Valley arrivals included Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is taking heat from the Trump administration for not doing enough to shift iPhone production out of China, only to set up manufacturing in India, and CBS TV host Gayle King.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also arrived in Idaho after the NBCUniversal owner spun off a host of cable channels into a separate company, Versant. That aims to give NBCU more flexibility to pursue M&A activity, including potentially under the Idaho sun this week.
And former CEO of Disney Michael Eisner, and chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group Barry Diller, hot on the heels of the media mogul publishing his memoir, have also checked in at Sun Valley.
Other industry heavyweights in Idaho include former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, chairman of Sirius XM Holdings Greg Maffei, a close collaborator with media veteran John Malone, and Wasserman Media Group CEO Casey Wasserman, the Los Angeles entertainment and sports management mogul.
Also seen arriving at the Sun Valley Lodge was OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who just bought former Apple designer Jony Ive’s startup io for $6.5 billion and may well be looking for other media and tech talent to support his expanding AI empire. Here’s more from the arrivals scene:
Disney chief Bob Iger arrives at the Sun Valley lodge.
CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman checked in this year.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan arrives at the Sun Valley lodge.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is back.
Producer Brian Grazer made his way to Idaho.
Future SpinCo CEO Gunnar Wiedenfels, currently at Warners, also arrived at Sun Valley.
Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg walk to a morning session.
Casey Wasserman has collected his SV25 badge.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai walks to lunch at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts arrives at the Sun Valley lodge.
Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Josh D’Amaro arrives at the Sun Valley lodge.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is back as well.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is at Sun Valley this year.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy leaves the Sun Valley Lodge at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.
Former CEO of Disney Michael Eisner arrives at the Sun Valley lodge.
