The list of billionaires invited to the Sun Valley, Idaho media conference by Allen & Co. includes Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The event is taking place next week and the information in this article comes from a guest list that Bloomberg News obtained.
Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google Inc., Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com Inc., and Apple’s CEO Tim Cook are all other billionaires who made this year’s guest list. And let’s not forget Rupert Murdoch who is the CEO and chairman of News Corp.
This is a very exclusive gathering that is sponsored by Allen and Co. They have been holding this event since 1983, and it is the type of setting where media executives can connect on an intimate level, discuss the things going on in the industry and also enjoy forms of family entertainment like bike riding and fly fishing. It’s well-known that many of the biggest media buyouts in history were either first spawned, or pushed along at the Sun Valley event. Comcast decided to purchase NBC Universal in 2011 at this very event, so it’s an extraordinarily big deal.
You’ll also find many elected officials at the Sun Valley event. Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey met Mark Zuckerberg at this event last year and their relationship turned into a $100 million donation from Zuckerberg which was used for Newark schools. Zuckerberg is the chairman and CEO of Facebook Inc. You will find both men on the guest list this year, and another famous political figure, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will also be in attendance. He is the founder of Bloomberg News.
Warren Buffett also attended this event in 2011, and since then he has been acquiring many newspapers because he believes that these publications for local communities won’t have any trouble thriving since there really isn’t any competition in their local market.
Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan have all been invited and are expected to attend. Murdoch announced recently that he is planning on spinning off the publishing division of his company. Others close to Murdoch that were invited are Joel Klein, who heads up his company’s education division, and Chase Carey, COO.