Monday, June 18, 2012

Yahoo!’s awkward reunion at Sun Valley

I got booted from Yahoo! Oh, you too?

Yahoo!’s revolving door could make for some colorful encounters at Allen and Co.’s annual deal-making retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, where a handful of current and former chiefs will have plenty of opportunities to get acquainted while golfing, rafting and fly fishing.

At the annual event, described as “summer camp” for media moguls, Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo!’s interim chief, could find himself rubbing elbows with — or getting the cold shoulder from — his predecessors, judging by the guest list obtained exclusively by The Post.

Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang, who served as interim CEO and chairman, is due to attend, as is the man he ended up replacing in the CEO suite, Terry Semel, who is a fixture at the gathering of media chieftains, tech entrepreneurs, politicians and the occasional sports star. The confab kicks off July 10.

Yang, who infamously nixed the $47 billion takeover offer from Microsoft in 2008, stepped down from Yahoo!’s board in January after 17 tumultuous years. He was soon followed out the door by Chairman Roy Bostock.

Bostock is on the list, but Scott Thompson, who was forced to resign as chief after a résumé-padding scandal, is not.

On the subject of awkward run-ins, Bill and Melinda Gates received an invite, but so did fellow Microsoft co-founder and foe Paul Allen.

While the late Steve Jobs was a no-show in recent years, there seems a greater chance Apple’s Tim Cook will attend with TV deals for a rumored Apple television on the horizon.

Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes, Comcast’s Brian Roberts and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch are set to attend, as is Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, whose fortune is estimated at $9 billion by Forbes.

Sun Valley, Idaho, Ross Levinsohn, Microsoft, Jerry Yang, Steve Jobs, Yahoo!

Nypost.com

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