DON’T BE A ‘TWIT’
Zuckerberg urged not to court Dorsey
Sun Valley, Idaho
WILL Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey get caught huddling at the Duck Pond?
That’s a hot question as Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley media conference kicked off Tuesday — and some of Facebook’s key investors are hoping and praying that the answer is “no.”
Zuckerberg and Dorsey — the chief executives of Facebook and Twitter, respectively — are two among scores of tech and media bigwigs descending on the rustic Idaho retreat to sniff out possible deals.
Other titans jetting in include Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger, as well as legends like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
But all other M&A speculation of late has been eclipsed by chatter that Twitter will get put on the block, and that Facebook might be the one to scoop it up.
The 31yearold Zuckerberg has emerged as one of the hottest dealmakers, having spent $21 billion last year to acquire Oculus and WhatsApp.
The WhatsApp deal in particular was a bonanza for Allen & Co., which reaped fat fees on the transaction. The boutique investment bank’s honcho Herb Allen is no doubt cultivating Zuckerberg as a golden goose.
But for some prominent Silicon Valley investors who have held their Face book shares since the early days, a FacebookTwitter combo would be toxic, according to a source briefed on the situation.
“They think Facebook is on a march, it’s doing well on mobile advertising,” the source told The Post, citing private conversations. “They think Twitter’s broken. It’s so far behind on development and the product sucks, so why would you infect Facebook with that thing?”
It all could be shrewd posturing, of course, as one Twitter investor countered this week, arguing that the shares are a steal while a turnaround team reaps lowhanging fruit left by freshly booted CEO Dick Costolo.
Lesson No. 1 in Sun Valley: the big people arrive in the little planes and the little people arrive in the big planes.
“There’s about 30 planes going in and out of the little Sun Valley airport,” the flight attendant told us lover the intercom, explaining why our jetliner was delayed. “We’ll have to circle another 10 or 15 minutes.”
We were lucky, as Allen & Co.’s annual “summer camp for billionaires” in Idaho has been known to divert planes to Boise, forcing their passengers into a sweaty shuttle bus to get where they paid to go.
So what did the media hordes learn on Tuesday as they caught up with the big folks unloading their SUVs?
Disney CEO Bob Iger — whose empire includes Marvel — doesn’t think comicbook franchises are losing steam at movie theaters.
And Elon Musk’s summer reading include Iain Bank’s 1996 science fiction novel “Excession.”