November 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who has been jailed for his role in the presidential scandal, will skip this week’s Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, an annual gathering of top media and tech leaders that he has attended since 2011.

Only select entrepreneurs and chief executives are invited to the exclusive media finance conference hosted and wholly independently funded by private investment firm Allen & Company, a place for the top honchos to bond and discuss deals. It has been held in Sun Valley, Idaho, for one week each July since 1983.

In previous meetings, the Samsung heir was spotted mingling with tech moguls such as Google’s Larry Page and Apple’s Tim Cook. This year’s participants include Sony’s Kazuo Hirai, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk.

Lee who was imprisoned in February also skipped the Boao Forum, dubbed the Chinese Davos Forum, in March due to the ongoing trial.

Some industry watchers have raised concerns about Samsung losing momentum in finding new growth engines with the absence of the top decision maker. The tech giant has been selling less profitable businesses while acquiring llucrative tech firms in recent years under Lee’s leadership.

“Samsung has not inked any merger deal since the acquisition of Harman in November last year, while others such as SK hynix are moving fast to find new business opportunities,” an industry source said.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)