The Media Elite Invade Sun Valley

This morning, the corporate jets will start touching down in Sun Valley as media titans congregate for the start of Allen & Company's famed annual industry summit. Every mogul in entertainment, media, or technology worth his (or rarely, her) salt makes an appearance at Herb Allen's elite retreat, and this year the deal kings will have plenty to talk about in between forums and fly fishing.

Industry observers agree that once the event starts on Wednesday morning, all eyes will be on Rupert Murdoch, as the media bigwigs in attendance try to glean any clues about the status of his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones.

Since its inception 25 years ago, Camp Allen has been hailed as a breeding ground for merger activity. More recently it has begun serving as a meat market for internet startups to connect with investors and big media execs.

The Hollywood Reporter predicts that much of the talk this year will be about online trends like social networking, online video and virtual worlds, as old-guard media institutions seek out lucrative acquisitions, and grapple with the question of whether any of these will be profitable businesses in the long-term.

After YouTube's Chad Hurley stole the show in 2006, this year's hottest properties are expected to be social networking sites Ning and Facebook, web video service Joost, and virtual world Second Life, Reuters reports.

As with every year, the event's guest list this year reads as a who's who of big media and entertainment. Returning guests reportedly include Barry Diller, Warren Buffett, Time Warner's Richard Parsons and Jeffrey Bewkes, eBay C.E.O. Meg Whitman, Disney's Bob Iger, and Google's Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Sumner Redstone, Leslie Moonves and Philippe Dauman will all attend on Viacom's behalf.

by Liz Gunnison