David Ellison, the founder of Skydance, and Bari Weiss, the co-founder of The Free Press, are attending the annual Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley this week.
David Ellison, the chief executive of the media company Skydance, has recently held early discussions about acquiring The Free Press, the online publication co-founded by Bari Weiss, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.
Ms. Weiss, who started The Free Press in 2021 with her wife, Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss, has positioned the company as a brash alternative to traditional media organizations. Mr. Ellison is trying to close Skydance’s merger with Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.
A deal between Skydance and The Free Press is far from certain. Ms. Weiss, a former opinion writer for The New York Times, has expressed a desire to run the site as a stand-alone company for the foreseeable future. Mr. Ellison’s attention has been focused on closing the deal with Paramount.
This week, the two are attending the annual Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley, which has historically been a deal-making hotbed. Allen & Company an investment firm, is a shareholder in The Free Press, alongside the venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, and the former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz.
The company has more than 30 investors, who own relatively small stakes in the company. Other investors include Yael Aflalo, the founder of Reformation, and Bobby Kotick, the former chief executive of Activision Blizzard.
Terms of any potential deal under discussion could not be learned.
In recent months, a handful of media owners have reached out to Ms. Weiss for advice on ways to improve their media properties, and some of that outreach has led to discussions about acquiring The Free Press, one of the people said.
