[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Who will attend this year’s 'The Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference,' the American social club for global billionaire tycoons that Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong referred to as "the business trip I care about the most"?
According to Bloomberg and U.S. entertainment media Variety on the 12th (local time), the Sun Valley Conference, hosted annually since 1983 by the U.S. investment firm Allen & Company, will be held next month at the Sun Valley resort in Idaho, USA. This event is known as the 'summer camp' for moguls, attracting many media and IT industry giants. Just before the event, a spectacle unfolds as private jets carrying heads of global companies arrive one after another in the area.
This year’s event will be attended by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest person. Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter, which Musk is attempting to acquire, is also on the attendee list, drawing attention to their meeting. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, and Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer (COO) who recently announced her resignation, will also attend.
Bob Iger, former CEO of Walt Disney who left the company last December, and his successor Bob Chapek, CEO, are also on the list. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, co-CEOs of Netflix; and Brian Roberts, Chairman of Comcast, will attend as well. Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, who did not appear last year, is expected to attend this year.
Phil Knight, founder of Nike, and Barry McCarthy, CEO of Peloton, will also come to Sun Valley. Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, is expected to engage in conversations with other billionaires.
Other regular attendees of the Sun Valley Conference include Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway; Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS); Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City; and Shari Redstone, Chairwoman of Paramount Global, who will also appear this year.
However, regular guests such as media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will not attend this year. Instead of Murdoch, his two sons Lachlan and James, along with his ex-wife Wendy, are expected to attend. Bezos’s absence appears to be influenced by his stepping down as CEO last year.
There is also speculation about Vice Chairman Lee’s possible attendance at this year’s Sun Valley Conference. Lee has consistently attended this event from 2002, when he was an executive director, until 2016. Considering he was unable to attend since 2017 due to his involvement in the political scandal, if he attends this year, it will be his first visit to Sun Valley in six years. In 2017, while detained, Lee stated in court that "Sun Valley is the busiest and most important business trip of the year."
The reason Lee emphasizes this event so much is that global company leaders can directly discuss major mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or collaborations at this gathering. In 2014, after a deep conversation with CEO Cook at this event, Lee withdrew smartphone patent lawsuits outside the U.S. that both companies were pursuing. In 2013, Jeff Bezos met Donald Graham, Chairman of The Washington Post (WP), and after about three hours of discussion, decided on the acquisition without separate negotiations.
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