Media Executives Flock to Sun Valley Conference

Each July, billionaires and mere multimillionaires flock to Sun Valley to mingle and be rich and maybe, just maybe, cut a deal. And so this week the private jets returned again, bearing a Who's Who of Wall Street financiers, Hollywood types and technorati to the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.

By all accounts, the moguls are happier campers this year than last, when the financial crisis was a not-so-distant memory. Like ordinary Americans, many returnees remain anxious about the fragile state of the economy and the up-and-down financial markets. The business of Sun Valley is business. For the past 27 years, the conference, hosted by the boutique investment bank Allen & Company, has been the place where blockbuster media deals have been planned and plotted. Last year, it was NBC Universal-Comcast. This year, people arrived buzzing that Walt Disney might be shopping ABC. Robert A. Iger, the head of Disney, promptly dismissed the talk. So far no deal, mega or otherwise, has emerged, though plenty of executives have ducked into conference rooms for private chats. There isn't a cloud in the Idaho sky, but there are plenty hanging over the economy -- more than enough to make a deal maker nervous. Liberty Media Group Chief John Malone said the Federal Communication Commission's media regulations are incoherent and have no rhyme or reason.