ViacomCBS CEO Bakish Banned From Billionaires' Media Camp

The bad blood between ViacomCBS President and CEO Bob Bakish and investment bank Allen & Company continues, according to FOX Business.

FOX Business has learned that Bakish once again won’t be attending the investment bank’s annual "summer camp for billionaires" in Sun Valley, Idaho where the rich and famous in the world of the media and finance think big thoughts and at times lay the groundwork for potential big deals.   

The event officially begins Tuesday, but the top media executives began flying into the tiny hamlet 155 miles east of Boise on Monday. The resort area will for a week house more billionaires than possibly anywhere in the country. This year’s event will feature some controversial figures in media and tech such as former Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who just days ago stepped down from e-commerce giant Amazon amid intense regulatory pressure.

Shari Redstone, Bob Bakish

The Bakish-Allen & Co. contretemps stem back to 2017 when Bakish butted heads with bankers at the firm over Viacom’s planned acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive. Bakish was CEO of the then standalone Viacom. Discovery ultimately won the bidding war for the $12 billion takeover, but Bakish complained to his board about Allen’s work on the deal and banished them from further assignments. Since then Bakish hasn’t attended the high-profile conference. His last appearance came in 2017.

This year's apparent snub is more glaring given Bakish’s clout in the media business. In 2019 Bakish was named head of the combined ViacomCBS that is controlled by the Redstone family’s parent company National Amusements, thus making him one of the most powerful executives in media.

Bakish’s standing, particularly among investment bankers, could grow even more if, as rumored, he shops ViacomCBS to suitors. Such a possibility makes his absence all the more conspicuous.

The 2021 event comes after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The confab attracts some of the biggest players in tech, media and finance. Bakish’s boss, Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements, is expected to attend. 

Investment bankers say Redstone will be shopping for deals at the conference including a possible Comcast merger, which would face significant antitrust hurdles since such a deal would have the companies combining rival broadcast networks CBS and NBC, the latter of which is owned by Comcast. Currently Federal Communications Commission rules  "prohibit a merger between any two of the big four broadcast television networks."