Sun Valley

G5 Idled? Check! Name Tags On? Check! Weeklong Mogul Fest in Sun Valley Will End With Zuckerberg-Gates Chit-Chat.

Kara Swisher in Media on July 5, 2011 at 5:47 pm PT

In case you haven’t heard, the tech and media moguls have jetted their private planes to Sun Valley, Idaho, for the exclusive annual Allen & Company confab and are probably easing into the cocktail hour just about now. Break out the Kistler Chardonnay and name tags!

Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Via a Cool IPO: The Delicious Irony of Myspace, Zynga and Owen Van Natta

Kara Swisher in News on July 3, 2011 at 9:00 am PT

How’s this for irony: It was less than a year and a half ago that Owen Van Natta was ousted from his job as CEO of Myspace. But last week — just as the failed social networking site sold for a paltry $35 million — Van Natta could have bought it himself for a fraction of his stake in Zynga, the social gaming phenom that just filed for its IPO and where he’s a top exec and shareholder.

September Surprise: AOL Re-Ups and Expands Search Agreement With Google

Kara Swisher in News on September 2, 2010 at 5:30 am PT

In a surprisingly quick and even stealthy move, AOL has renewed and expanded its search agreement with Google, even though many had expected there to be more-competitive bidding throughout the fall to win the deal. The five-year deal, which is actually the third between the companies since 2002, to provide search technology and search advertising by powering AOL Search is more wide-ranging than the one it replaces. It also includes improved search products, global search, mobile search and also a video-distribution arrangement with YouTube, which could evolve over time to include content partnerships.

Where in the World Is Owen Van Natta? Try Zynga…

Kara Swisher in News on July 15, 2010 at 10:15 am PT

After longtime Internet tech exec Owen Van Natta was ousted from his job as CEO of MySpace last February, he seemed to drop off the map a bit to chillax and regroup. Not for long, though, as the former Facebook COO and Amazon exec soon began doing mentoring and unofficial consulting work with various Silicon Valley start-ups. Most especially, according to numerous sources, that effort has been largely focused on Zynga, the red-hot social gaming company, where many think he might eventually land as a top exec.

In Sun Valley, Media Chiefs Fret Over Economy

Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 8, 2010 at 3:11 pm PT

Media and technology executives and investors are sounding new alarms bells about the economy, worried it could wipe out recent growth. In an interview Thursday morning at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, WPP LLC chief executive Martin Sorrell cited the possible widening of Europe’s economic troubles along with the coming expiration of some tax cuts for business as among the fears of the media, entertainment and technology executives attending the annual event. “People feel that things are uncertain,” he said.

Sun Valley Update: Is the Internet TV Market Up for Grabs?

Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 7, 2010 at 4:45 pm PT

Despite serious interest from Apple and Google, the market of Internet-connected televisions is still up for grabs, said former chief executive of Sling Media Blake Krikorian in an interview Wednesday.

Schmidt and Zuck Peel Away From the Pack in Sun Valley

Jessica E. Vascellaro, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on July 7, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

It is night one at the Allen and Company conference in Sun Valley, and the moguls are trickling in. They are also getting down to business. Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg were spotted driving away from the Sun Valley Lodge in Mr. Schmidt’s light blue rental car for a private rendezvous. Schmidt, smiling, was carrying a coffee.

Stern Leave Satellite for Internet Radio? Over Sirius CEO’s Dead Body.

John Paczkowski in News on February 3, 2010 at 6:15 am PT

With Howard Stern’s five-year Sirius XM satellite radio deal set to expire in January 2011, there’s been a fair bit of speculation that he might return to terrestrial. Given Stern’s obvious affinity for the permissiveness of satellite, it seems unlikely that he’d ever give it up to return to “regular” radio, but would he decamp for Internet radio? Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin doesn’t seem to think so.

BoomTown Decodes Google CEO Schmidt's Shut-Up-You-Whiny-News-Folk Op-Ed (So You Don't Have To)!

Kara Swisher in News on December 3, 2009 at 1:30 pm PT

Google CEO Eric Schmidt did one of his patented throat-clearers in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal today and it pretty much begs for translation. Well, BoomTown shall not tarry from the task of decoding the extra-long rumination from the head of Google, who was responding to the recent spate of aggressive attacks by traditional media publishers. They have blamed the search giant for everything from their current business woes to the destruction of journalism to Tiger Woods’s dicey marital troubles. Okay, not that! But the rest for sure.