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July in full swing sees top media executives and an impressive political cohort gathered at a storied mountain resort to hike, chat and whitewater raft. The elixir of relaxed proximity distilled in Sun Valley’s rustic woods is credited with hatching a number of consequential deals over the decades.
But this year could one deal be undone? It’s unlikely, but Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount, and Barry Diller, who might like to, are both present and Par’s recent merger agreement with Skydance has a 45-day window for other interested buyers to jump in.
Skydance CEO David Ellison is not at Sun Valley but quite likely will be next year as a major studio owner-operator.
With the media and entertainment industry continuing to undergo unprecedented change, streaming bundles, sports rights, the overall state of film, TV and tech, as well as the current political climate are in the mix at the conference, which has been hosted annually since 1983 by boutique investment bank Allen & Co. Open AI co-founder Sam Altman is attending, with Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy. Patriarch Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox, join Disney chief Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav for an agenda of talks, meetups and well-tended nature. Execs from NBCUniversal parent Comcast are full up with the Summer Olympics in Paris starting later this month and it wasn’t immediately clear who from the company is attending.
Moguls and tech titans began arriving yesterday, private planes crowding the small Idaho town’s tiny airport.
Iger, who is set to exit Disney at the end of 2026, has a cotillion with Dana Walden, Alan Bergman and Josh D’Amaro, as well as CFO Hugh Johnston. He wants to get succession right this time after his previous CEO pick, Bob Chapek, bellyflopped and was ejected, leading to Iger’s second turn at the helm. The search is underway and he is preparing for life after Disney, looking, with his wife Willow Bay, to make a big investment in women’s pro soccer team Angel City FS.
Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment with Bergman, oversees the company’s full portfolio of entertainment media, news and content businesses globally, including streaming. Bergman leads film, both theatrical and streaming releases, including Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. D’Amaro runs Disney Experiences led by theme parks and resorts.
Sun Valley could be viewed as a bit of succession planning as the three interact with other attendees.
The executive crowd and wealthy political donors will be mingling with some of the nation’s most dynamic Democratic governors including Wisconsin’s Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland’s Wes Moore Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was invited but is remaining in Harrisburg for ongoing budget negotiations. All have doubled down on support for President Biden amid calls for him to step away as a presidential candidate following that disastrous debate performance two weeks ago. Biden says he won’t, and is currently hosting a celebration of NATOs 75th birthday in Washington, D.C.
Whitmer, who was the target of an (unsuccessful) kidnapping plot, has been out and about this week defending Biden and talking about her new book, True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between.
Shari Redstone, meanwhile, may be turning the page on Allen & Co. after this year as she prepares to exit the biz. She’s explored potential deals and partnerships for several years at the event but arrived at Sun Valley 2024 having literally just clinched Paramount’s sale to Skydance. It’s unlikely she’d ditch Ellison after so many months spent tinkering with a combination that she favors for a combination of reasons. But Paramount is a publicly traded company and under the terms of the agreement anyone can step up in the next month and a half.
Sun Valley sports a few other former or potential suitors. Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Apollo, was looking at Paramount’s books but has retreated for now amid regulatory complications and Skydance’s ascendance. “There might have been other scenarios that could have played out in other ways, but this seems to be currently the scenario for the moment,” SPE chief Tom Rothman told Deadline this week. Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of SPE parent Sony Corp., which also spans music, games and electronics, will be in Sun Valley with Hiroki Totoki, the giant company’s COO and CFO.
Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav, who also talked with Redstone about a possible combination, would not miss Sun Valley where, in recent years, he’s speculated on deals to come as WBD gets its financial house in order post-merger.
Merger mania overall has been dampened by challenges, or threat of them, from an extremely proactive FTC and federal regulators although that could change if the next administration is Republican.
Pressing for Zaslav at the moment may be basketball with WBD seen likely to lose its longstanding rights deal with the NBA. Zaslav has a shot to charm the league’s Commissioner Adam Silver, also at the confab, into giving the company a few games.
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Dominic Patten contributed to this story
