Camp damp for the elite

Industry biggies head to annual retreat

By JILL GOLDSMITH

Allen & Co.'s summer camp for the super-rich kicked off under heavy rain Wednesday as media moguls and assorted industry heavyweights broke out the casual wear and mobbed the sleepy resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho.

While there's a sense that the retreat, now in its 24th year, may have lost some of its luster with the age of mammoth media mergers past, the guest list remains top drawer. Rupert Murdoch, Howard Stringer, Bob Iger, Richard Parsons, Sumner Redstone, Tom Freston, Leslie Moonves, Terry Semel and Bono are all there rubbing shoulders with uber-agents, bankers, politicos and philanthropists.

Newcomers like Chad Hurley of YouTube, a Web site where people post videos, and Nick Grouf of Spot Runner, a Netco that lets folks create and buy TV commercials, speak to the emergence of new players on the media scene as the industry reshapes itself for the digital age.

Others expected to attend include Michael Bloomberg, Coca-Cola chief Neville Isdell, Nike chairman Philip Knight and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Paige. Altogether, some 260 invitees, with another 400-plus family members in tow, may be whitewater rafting on investment banker Herb Allen's dime.

Barry Diller, arm in arm with Diane von Furstenberg, sported a bold, striped orange sweater. Former CIA director George Tenet shared a burger with director Sydney Pollack.

Wednesday's presentations included "The 101 Commandments for Business Failure" by Allen & Co. chairman Don Keogh, former head of Coca-Cola, and a talk by eBay CEO Meg Whitman. After her talk, she gave out phones that work with the company's Internet phone service, Skype. Murdoch took two.

Confab, which runs through Sunday, will feature Charlie Rose interviewing Warren Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman who just donated the bulk of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett was the richest man there; the planet's wealthiest individual, Bill Gates, didn't come this year.

This year's event is expected to draw 18 billionaires with a combined net worth of $140 billion.

On Friday, Michael Eisner, who has become "the interviewer" among his set, will sit down with Murdoch, Stringer and Diller.

Throwing this many moguls together always opens the possibilities of deals.

At the 1995 retreat, Michael Eisner and CapCities/ABC first discussed a Disney-ABC merger. Several years later, Murdoch's talks with Ron Perelman led to News Corp.'s acquisition of New World Communications.

If anything, the conference is a great way to mark changes in the media landscape. One Sun Valley ago:

• Eisner was in his last months at Disney with Iger waiting in the wings. Now Iger's the boss. Disney has bought Pixar. And Eisner has a talkshow on CNBC.

• Stringer had just triumphantly taken the reins at Sony Corp., the first ever non-Japanese chairman. Now he's in the midst of an exhausting battle to turn the company around, and it's unclear if he'll get the better of Sony or visa versa.

• Viacom and CBS were still one company.

• Murdoch had only just started the buying spree that's since made Fox Interactive one of the most talked-about businesses in the entertainment world.