Mexico’s Fox to Address Media Moguls in Idaho
Mexican President Vicente Fox, the former Coca-Cola Co. executive whose election last year ended seven decades of one-party rule, will address media moguls including Walt Disney Co.’s Michael Eisner at Allen & Co.’s annual conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week.
After arriving Friday and spending two days at the conference, Fox plans to travel to Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. The Mexican’s trip to Sun Valley will enable him to meet business leaders such as Eisner, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Warren Buffett.
The 59-year-old Fox worked at the Mexican unit of Coke from 1964 to 1979.
Fox “probably wants to convince these people to invest more money in Mexico,” said Eduardo Schwartz, professor of finance at UCLA’s Anderson School. “Perhaps he can establish some personal relationships.”
The Sun Valley meetings, which start today, have been an incubator for large media transactions in recent years.
The biggest was Disney’s $19-billion purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, announced soon after the 1995 conference.
Wayne Huizenga, the Florida billionaire who co-founded the Blockbuster Video chain, met Sumner Redstone, Viacom Inc.’s chief executive, at Sun Valley in the early 1990s. In 1994, Viacom bought Blockbuster for $7.7 billion.
