Shari Redstone, who two days ago sold Paramount Global to Skydance Media, touched down in Sun Valley, Idaho, Tuesday.
She joined other media and tech moguls including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Disney’s Bob Iger, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and IAC’s Barry Diller, whose pursuit of Paramount foundered as Skydance closed the $8 billion deal on Sunday.
Perhaps Diller still harbors hope?
Over 160 private jets were scheduled to fly in Tuesday, crowding the Idaho resort’s tiny airport as today’s biggest industry players flew in for Allen & Co.’s annual “summer camp for billionaires.” Details and happenings of the invite-only, ultra-secretive event at the sprawling ski lodge are kept under lock and key from the public, but the annual conference has traditionally served as a hotbed for industry dealmaking.
Redstone, therefore, may well court suitors for Paramount Global even after she agreed to sell to David Ellison’s Skydance. Thanks to the deal’s 45-day go-shop provision, Paramount has the right to search for a better offer through mid-August.
Ellison will not be in Sun Valley.
Imagine Entertainment cofounder Brian Grazer will also be in attendance, having just hired bankers to help sell the company he leads with director Ron Howard.
Iger, meanwhile, was joined by several potential successors after he steps away from Disney’s helm in 2026, including Disney Entertainment cochairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and Disney Parks chief Josh D’Amaro.
Other media moguls slated to attend are Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, NewsCorp owner Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James, Apple’s Tim Cook, YouTube’s Neal Mohan and Comcast’s Brian Roberts.
Hollywood is also represented by Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters and the streamer’s chairman Reed Hastings and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Also there are former Disney president-turned-investor Michael Ovitz, former Disney president Michael Eisner and DreamWorks cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who recently roiled Biden donors in Hollywood for allegedly covering up the truth about the president’s health.
As President Biden dominates the national discourse, prominent Democrats — senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — will also touch down.
Other important discussions will likely include the rights for live sports, particularly in streaming, meaning that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the NBA’s Adam Silver and Patriots owner Robert Kraft will be popular attendees.
The guest list is mostly white and male, but leading women who got the prestigious invite include former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, Meta CFO Susan Li, investor Wendi Murdoch, Spanx creator Sara Blakely and iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg. And, of course, Oprah Winfrey and her bestie Gayle King.
While the event is strictly off-the-record, media guests include CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, as well as Van Jones, plus CNBC anchor and New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Missing this year are previous guests Elon Musk and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, although his lieutenant Ted Weschler is expected to attend.
And as the nation remains obsessed with weight loss drugs, no mogul meetup would be complete without Dave Ricks, the chairman CEO of Eli Lilly, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company responsible for Mounjaro and Zepbound.
