The invite-only Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference, also known as "summer camp for billionaires," kicks off in Sun Valley, Idaho this week.
It's where some of the biggest names in tech and media flock, and where seeds have been planted for tech and media acquisitions, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's purchase of The Washington Post, Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo and, in 1995, Disney's merger with ABC. It's also great marketing for investment bank boutique Allen & Co., which has advised on some of the biggest tech, media and telecom mergers, including Time Warner's $108 billion sale to AT&T and LinkedIn's $26 billion sale to Microsoft.
A lot has changed in the media landscape since last year. Fox sold its entertainment assets to Disney for $71 billion. Netflix, once the king of streaming, will soon compete for viewers with new services from Disney, AT&T and Comcast's NBC, all of which are competing to create the best collection of original and existing TV and movie content. Apple is also throwing its hat in the game, with a new service called Apple TV+ that will launch this fall with original movies.
Here's who's showing up:
Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of internet and services Eddy Cue
Apple already has partnerships with lots of major media players for Apple TV Channels, which launched in May. But it needs to bulk up on original content to compete with the largest media companies. No surprise to see these two arrive.
Mary Barra, chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors
GM's self-driving car unit just raised another $1.15 billion. Lots of tech executives that could help with those efforts are here.
Tim Armstrong
Armstrong left Verizon's Oath at the end of 2018 and has a new venture called Unbox that works with direct-to-consumer companies that he's pitching.
Here' a video of Armstrong discussing Unbox with CNBC"s Julia Boorstin:
Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast
Roberts arrived in Sun Valley ahead of Comcast's NBC streaming service launch, which is coming in 2020. He looks happy with a new deal that will take "The Office" from Netflix.
Alex Karp, chief executive officer of Palantir Technologies
Palantir, which has made the CNBC Disruptor's list 7 years in a row, is rumored to be considering an IPO this year, and it's hot off a big $800 million contract with the Army.
Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements; vice-chairwoman of CBS Corporation and Viacom
Redstone might be looking for some merger or acquisition opportunities. Step one appears to be putting CBS and Viacom together, following the ouster of former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves last year. But Discovery, Sony Pictures and MGM might also be eventual targets.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn
Hoffman is now a partner at venture capitalist firm Greylock Partners, and a board member at Microsoft, which acquired LinkedIn in 2016. Is he scouting some new start-ups?
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook
Facebook is still trying to get people to watch its videos, and has most recently been trying to lure stars from YouTube. The companies that own the content Facebook needs are all here. And Sandberg is still in the hot seat over Facebook's privacy issues.
Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter
The former CEO of Twitter is in Sun Valley, too. He currently has a role as "mentor" of the venture capitalist firm Index Ventures, but may be looking for his next big gig.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
Uber has gone public since last year's Sun Valley summit. Is Khosrowshahi waving or flagging down a self-driving car?
David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery
He says he's not looking to sell (for now) and that Discovery has side-stepped the streaming wars, but Redstone is there.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC.
WATCH: CNBC's full interview with Discovery CEO David Zaslav
