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In July, top media executives and top politicians flock to the famed mountain resort to hike, chat and go whitewater rafting. The elixir of relaxed intimacy exuded in Sun Valley’s rustic forests is said to have helped close many big deals over the decades.
But could one deal be backed out this year? It’s unlikely, but Paramount chief Shari Redstone and Barry Diller, who wants to back out, are both in attendance, and Paramount and Skydance’s recent merger deal includes a 45-day grace period during which other interested buyers could enter the fray.
Skydance CEO David Ellison is not in Sun Valley, but he is likely to be there next year as a major studio owner and operator.
As the media and entertainment industry continues to undergo unprecedented change, streaming bundles, sports rights, the overall landscape of film, television and technology, the current political climate and more will be discussed at the conference, which has been hosted annually since 1983 by boutique investment bank Allen & Company. Open AI co-founder Sam Altman will attend, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy. Fox CEO and patriarch Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch will join Disney CEO Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav for an agenda of talks, meetups and manicured nature fun. Executives from NBCUniversal parent Comcast are busy with the Paris Summer Olympics, which begin later this month, and it was not immediately clear who from the company will be attending.
Business tycoons and tech magnates began arriving yesterday, flooding the tiny airport in this small Idaho town with private jets.
Iger, who is scheduled to leave Disney at the end of 2026, has close relationships with Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Josh D’Amaro, and CFO Hugh Johnston. This is Iger’s second time as CEO, following the failure and dismissal of previous CEO Bob Chapek, and this time he wants to do a good job of selecting a successor. The search for a successor is underway, and Iger is preparing for life after Disney, considering a major investment in the women’s professional soccer team Angel City FS with his wife Willow Bay.
Walden serves as co-chairman of Disney Entertainment with Bergman, overseeing the company’s entire portfolio of entertainment media, news and content businesses globally, including streaming. Bergman oversees motion pictures (both theatrical and streaming) for Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. D’Amaro runs the Disney Experience, led by theme parks and resorts.
At Sun Valley, the way the three interact with other participants could be seen as part of a succession plan.
Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Josh D’Amaro
Disney
The executives and wealthy political donors will mingle with some of the country’s most dynamic Democratic governors, including Gretchen Whitmer of Wisconsin and Wes Moore of Maryland. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was invited but will remain in Harrisburg for budget negotiations. All are doubling down on their support for President Biden amid calls for him to step down as a presidential candidate following his disastrous debate performance two weeks ago. Biden has said he won’t step down and is currently hosting a celebration of NATO’s 75th anniversary.Number Birthday in Washington DC
Whitmer, the target of an attempted kidnapping plot, has defended Biden this week and spoke about her new book. True Gretsch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between.
Meanwhile, Shari Redstone is preparing to end her relationship with Allen & Company this year and move out of the industry. She’s been exploring potential deals and partnerships with the event for a few years, but she arrived at Sun Valley 2024 literally on the heels of the decision to sell Paramount to Skydance. It’s unlikely she’d abandon Ellison after so many months of trying to come up with a combination she preferred for a variety of reasons. But Paramount is a public company, and under the terms of the deal, anyone could become a representative in the next month and a half.
Sun Valley is home to several companies that have made or may make acquisitions in the past. Sony Pictures Entertainment had partnered with Apollo to consider buying Paramount, but regulatory complexities and the rise of Skydance led to them backing away for now. “There may have been scenarios in which things played out differently, but at this point, this appears to be the status quo,” Sony Pictures Chief Executive Tom Rothman told Deadline this week. Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of Sony Pictures’ parent company Sony, which also makes music, games and electronics, is scheduled to be at Sun Valley, along with the giant’s COO and CFO, Hiroki Toki.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, who has also discussed a possible merger with Redstone, said he has speculated about a Sun Valley deal in recent years as WBD restructured its finances after the merger and has no plans to miss out on Sun Valley.
The merger mania has generally been tempered by challenges, or threats of challenges, from an extremely aggressive FTC and federal regulators, but that may change if the next administration is Republican. Deals that have worked their way through Sun Valley range from Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post and the AT&T-WarnerMedia merger to the former AOL purchase of Time Warner and Disney’s acquisition of ABC.
Perhaps most pressing for Zaslav right now is basketball, with WBD facing the prospect of losing its longstanding rights deal with the NBA – a chance to charm NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who was also in the meeting, into giving the company the rights to a few games.
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Dominic Patten contributed to this story
