Attention media reporters: Rupert Murdoch, probably the most important man on your beat, has lost his wedding ring. Last seen in the Sun Valley Lodge lobby.

Murdoch stumbled out of the Lodge bar on Thursday around midnight, where a ridiculously high-powered assemblage of media and tech moguls got sloshed. Instead of making a bee-line for the exit as most of the guests were doing, Murdoch, married to third wife Wendi Deng, was spotted hunting around the lobby. He told us he had lost his wedding ring.

So began a frantic 15-minute scramble among reporters hungry to please the mogul (me included), hoping to recover the ring and land an exclusive interview. No such luck. Still missing.

(Photo: Reuters)

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang — the target of a proxy battle by billionaire investor Carl Icahn and a takeover offensive by Microsoft — just arrived in Sun Valley for Allen & Co’s mogul confab. It looks like he wishes he was elsewhere.

Yang was also spotted by the Sun Valley Inn with former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons, probably asking for advice on how to handle Icahn.

(Photo: Reuters / Rick Wilking / (l to r) Google co-founder Larry Page, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Google co-founder Sergey Brin)

Camping out at the Sun Valley Lodge bar on day 2 of Allen & Co’s annual Sun Valley mogul fest — a time honored tradition — is kind of like Disneyland for folks like us.

Slightly to extremely inebriated tycoons of the media and tech industry wander the lobby huddled in small groups chatting about stuff that few will remember in a few hours, while reporters try to keep pace with the liquor consumption and the conversation.

A quick snapshot:

• Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Yahoo: “Good company, good partner. A lot of excitement going on. For recent events, talk to the CEO.” We think he meant Yahoo’s Yang, who has yet to show up. Brin then realizes that standing next to him is Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara. Ihara to Brin: “We called you last year about something and we never heard from you!” Brin to Ihara: “I have something for your TVs.” Out of nowhere, Sony CFO Rob Wiesenthal jumps in to rescue Ihara. Fun’s over.
• While I was chatting up Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg jumped in: “If he offered cable service in New York City, I’d switch in a second!” Brian fires back: “Let me tell you. Here’s the next President of the United States.” (We think he meant the next next President)
• Winner of high wattage table of the night:  Google co-founder Larry Page, Legg Mason’s Bill Miller (Yahoo investor), former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Yahoo President Sue Decker, Davis Advisors’s Christopher Davis, Sergey Brin. In response to a question about what everyone talked about, Brin tells the AP reporter Jeremy Herron that he learned about money markets. 

(Photo: Reuters/Rick Wilking / (l to r) Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sergey Brin, Allen & Co.’s Nancy Peretsman at Sun Valley 2007)

Grudging acceptance is one way to describe Allen & Co.’s reception to the gaggle of reporters and photographers who show up at its annual mogul fest year after year like bad pennies.

There are ground rules and they change periodically. They mostly leave us alone and we mostly stay out of attendees’ ways, especially the press-shy contingent.

But this year, Allen & Co banned reporters from setting up in the beloved cafe at the Inn, where most of the morning presentations take place. We’ve relocated to the lobby, where five lucky reporters sit in chairs to file stories and photos. (It is next to a faux fireplace, so we’re not complaining. They also brought coffee for the photographers this morning.)

But thanks to thousands of dollars’ worth of shrubs that they placed between us and the moguls, it’s now harder to spot the table-hopping action. So, for now, no cafeteria report until I figure out a more efficient way to scope out the crowd. (I don’t know the exact total, but judging by the price tags on the shrubs, I’d say they plunked down somewhere between $4,300 and $6,110 )

What has stayed the same? We’re still escorted to the bathroom by private security.

(Photo: Reuters)

Consummate dealmaker Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corp, strolled into the Sun Valley Inn for the first full day of Allen & Co’s annual mogul retreat.

Asked by CNBC reporter Julia Boorstin whether he was buying anything, he shot back, “Not today. Not this week.”

That might provide some small comfort for shareholders who have sent shares of News Corp sinking close to 30 percent since the beginning of the year on a variety of issues, including a sluggish economy and threats of an advertising recession. Shareholders also craw about the dreaded “Murdoch Discount” — investor concern the media tycoon will suddenly make another a big purchase.

Recent actions to privatize NDS Group, which nets News Corp an estimated $1.7 billion in cash, have only exacerbated those fears.

(Photo: Rick Wilking for Reuters)

Every year a secret guest graces Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference with his/her presence. Last year, Tony Blair quietly rolled in and lunched with Viacom chief Sumner Redstone, among other activities.

If you can figure out which country this flag belongs to, you’ve got the answer:

Thanks to Reuters photographer Rick Wilking for this one. Sun Valley Lodge staffers unfurled the flag and quickly took it down — likely after being told it was secret. We’re hearing from one guest that this year’s surprise attendee will be His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan.

(Photo: Reuters / Rick Wilking)

They call it the Duck Pond, but it’s actually teaming with (vicious) swans. It’s considered a big media and tech powwow, but a broad swath of global corporate titans of finance and politics round out the guest list.

It’s the 26th annual Allen & Co Sun Valley conference, where high-wattage huddles transpiring on the tranquil resort grounds among stunningly rich business people swathed in questionable leisure wear could end up in big deals months from now. The legend springs from the track record: AOL and Time Warner, Walt Disney and CapCities/ABC, Google and YouTube are all said to have gotten started here.

In between knitting (!), yoga, white-water rafting and golfing, and bridge (!) games execs like Google’s trio Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin mix it up Disney’s Bob Iger, Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch.

Although the mood this year is decidedly somber as the deteriorating U.S. economy weighs heavily on the minds of moguls, deal chatter persists and will likely center on what AllthingsD’s Kara Swisher likens to the Godfather-like meeting of the five families — the drama over who’s going to link up, buy, merge, strikes with whom playing out between Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Time Warner and News Corp.

In particular, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang and Sue Decker are under the hotlights again after billionaire investor and career agitator Carl Icahn fired another salvo on Monday urging shareholders to join his campaign to wipe clean the board slate and pave a way towards a deal with Microsoft. Microsoft’s backing Icahn, it seems. The software maker is open to pursuing a deal to buy all or part of Yahoo — only if a new board is elected.

The only thing missing from the pitch: price.

Gordon Crawford of Capital Research & Management, which owns 16.3 percent of Yahoo, is also mulling backing Icahn, Swisher reports. Crawford is expected to attend as well.

Meanwhile, Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes could seal a deal to merge the company’s AOL operations with Yahoo and take a stake in the embattled Web giant in time to appease shareholders at Yahoo’s Aug. 1 annual meeting. Or maybe not so fast.

(Photo: Reuters/Rick Wilking)

Two among the 117 million of you MySpace users will get to cover the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this year as citizen journalists (oh, how we hate that term!).

All you have to do is submit a short video piece starting June 26 to MySpace and NBC News’s Decisions ‘08 page answering three questions:

•  ”Why do you vote?”
•  ”Why are you the best person for this job?”
• “How will you stand out in the crowd and get the scoop no one else can?”

A panel from MySpace and NBC News will narrow the submissions down to five finalists. The final two will be selected by MySpace members starting July 21. The winner will be announced on July 29.

Personally, we’d like to see at least one of the winners come from a non-U.S. region to lend the coverage a more international perspective. Failing that, perhaps someone will step forward to complete the assignment in a chicken costume.

(Photo: MySpace)

This came as something of a surprise when we saw it.  New York City — not Silicon Valley — landed on the top of the list of the biggest U.S. technology industry workforces in 2006, according to a new study from the American Electronics Association (AeA), which bills itself as the “nation’s largest technology trade organization … dedicated solely to helping our members’ top line and bottom line.”

The media and finance capital of the world employed about 316,500 high-tech workers in 2006. The city added about 6,400 jobs from the prior year, making it the second fastest growing “cybercity” behind Seattle. The average New York City high-tech wage in 2006 was $91,500, or 46 percent higher than the average private sector job.

“The factors that have long made New York City a center of finance, culture and entertainment - a uniquely talented and diverse workforce, top academic institutions and a spirit of creativity not found anywhere else - are today making the City a center of technological innovation,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “The high-tech industry is a valuable and increasingly important part of the New York City economy, and its continued growth will foster New York’s evolution as a ‘cybercity’ and keep us ahead of the curve.”

But if you want to make bank, you still have to trek out to the Valley. Average wage in the San Jose/Silicon Valley region - $144,828. 

 The leading metro areas by high-tech employment in 2006:

• #1: New York Metro Area
  Total high-tech jobs: 316,509
  Average wage: $91,451
• #2: Washington, DC
  Total high-tech jobs: 295,834
  Average wage: $92,718
• #3: San Jose/Silicon Valley
  Total high-tech jobs: 225,343
  Average wage: $144,828
• #4: Boston
  Total high-tech jobs: 191,690
  Average wage: $95,100
• #5: Dallas-Fort Worth
  Total high-tech jobs: 176,010
  Average wage: $83,133 

(Photo: Reuters /Google’s New York City office)

There are humble beginnings, and then there are those who get dropped-kicked. An example of the latter is what’s being billed as 2008’s first media sector initial public offering: RHI Entertainment LLC, makers of “Kung Fu Killer” and “Kung Fu Killer II” and other made-for-television movies.

The “Kung Fu” series reimagines David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Caine character as White Crane, “spiritual master of the martial arts who takes on criminals deep in the bowels of Shanghai.

RHI is bestowed the title of first media IPO by edging in front of Al Gore-backed Current Media, the owners of interactive cable channel Current TV, which filed for a $100 million IPO in January, but has yet to indicate when it expects to go public. Meanwhile, losses are mounting up quickly as ad revenue shrinks.

Troubled waters in the media, threats of a possible advertising recession hasn’t stopped RHI.

Perhaps it should have: RHI shares, which priced at $14 per share, below its hoped-for $16 to $18, sunk 5 percent to $13.30 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.

Uhm, let’s hope “Kung Fu Killer III” does even better. Although, one would hope that Hollywood’s given up on the white knight saving the (fill in the non-Caucasian group here) from themselves.

(Photo: RHI.com)