The heir apparent of Samsung Group is scheduled to meet Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google CEO Eric Schmidt during the annual Allen & Company media conference in Sun Valley, California, on July 6-10, a local report said Thursday.

A Samsung Group spokesperson said Lee Jae-yong, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics, the flagship Samsung unit, plans to attend the annual gathering of technology and media moguls, but said he has no knowledge of whether the 43 year old plans to have one-on-one meetings with the chief executives of Apple and Google. 

“Lee has participated in the event every year since 2005,” the spokesperson Kenneth Hong said.

The possible meetings have drawn keen attention from the local media to see whether the business titans would talk about deals to boost cooperation. Apple is one of the biggest buyers of Samsung’s chips, which are used in Apple’s iPod, iPod Touch and iPhone. Google is also working closely with Samsung in the smartphone business, as Samsung, the world‘s No. 2 handset maker, has launched Google’s Android-based smartphones, including the Galaxy S.

Apple and Google are also rivals to Samsung at the same time as the three companies are competing fiercely to gain the upper hand in the smartphone market.

The Allen & Company media conference, which has taken place annually since 1983, has been often used by executives of media and technology companies to network and discuss deals. The event is closed to the press.

Jobs also plans to make an appearance at the conference for the first time in five years, according to Bloomberg, citing the guest list that it had obtained.

Other expected attendees this year include Schmidt, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett, Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, Disney CEO Bob Iger, KKR & Co.’s Henry Kravis and Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Bloomberg. 


By Jin Hyun-joo (hjjin@heraldcorp.com)