THEIR PRIVATE IDAHO!
Allen summit: Who’s who and who’s slighted
THE only thing more interesting than who’s going to Sun Valley this year is, of course, who’s not going. Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel — who last year was seen powwowing with fellow libertarian Rand Paul at the annual media mogul bash thrown by Allen & Co. in Idaho — isn’t coming in 2015, according to a list of attendees obtained by The Post.
Neither is Paul, for that matter. Meanwhile, Paul’s rival presidential hopeful New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie managed to land a coveted invite to the annual dealmaking scrum.
It’s anybody’s guess what it all means, but Allen & Co.’ s list has become partly a barometer for who’s hot in tech, media and politics, and partly a gauge of who’s hiring Allen & Co. to assist their wheeling and dealing.
This year’s list includes perennial moguls like Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and Michael Bloomberg. An expanding crop of younger tech CEOs likewise populates the roster, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel.
A small but growing number of prominent female execs will likewise be in attendance, among them Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Yahoo!’ s Marissa Mayer and HP’s Meg Whitman.
This year, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai— who has been battling a hacking scandal that has plunged the conglomerate into turmoil — doesn’t appear on Allen & Co.’ s list despite attending last year.
Fanning speculation that Hirai is on thin ice, Sony US Entertainment President Nicole Seligman did receive an invite this year, according to the list.
Elsewhere, the truth may be more complicated. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, for example, wasn’t on this year’s or last year’s list, and neither was his CEO Daniel Zhang.
That, however, is a rare case of an exec who can afford to focus elsewhere even as he looks to cut big deals in Silicon Valley.
“If Jack wants to meet with Evan, he’ll go meet with Evan,” one tech insider observed, referring to Snapchat’s Spiegel.
Elsewhere, the list raises the possibility of a few high profile runins. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin got invites, as well as Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. But so did Mathias Döpfner, the German media executive who has been leading the charge against Google’s alleged search monopoly in Europe.