The Los Angeles Lakers have been sold again, and this time the price tag has stunned the entire sports business world.
By Imperium Times News Desk
The Los Angeles Lakers have been sold again, and this time the price tag has stunned the entire sports business world. Barely fourteen months after billionaire Mark Walter took charge of the Los Angeles Lakers from the legendary Buss family, he has agreed to hand over his majority stake to media mogul Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner in a deal that values the Los Angeles Lakers at a staggering twelve point five billion dollars. The transaction instantly becomes the most expensive purchase of any franchise in American professional sports history, surpassing every previous benchmark and cementing the Los Angeles Lakers as the most valuable brand in the National Basketball Association.
For a franchise that has always represented glamour, championships, and Hollywood star power, the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers marks the end of an emotional chapter for the Buss family legacy and the beginning of a new era under two of America’s most influential businessmen. Jerry Buss purchased the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1979, and his family guided the franchise through eleven championship runs before finally selling their controlling stake to Mark Walter last year for what was then a record ten billion dollars. That the Los Angeles Lakers have now been resold within just over a year, at a twenty five percent premium, shows exactly how dramatically the value of marquee sports franchises has exploded in recent seasons.
Source: Imperium Times
Bob Iger, the former Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, stepped down from his post earlier this year after two legendary stints running the entertainment giant. Since leaving Disney, Iger has taken on an advisory role with Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded and led by Josh Kushner. That partnership has now culminated in one of the most talked about sports business stories of the year, as the pair officially confirmed their purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers in a joint statement released this week.
“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world,” Iger and Kushner said. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss. Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”
Josh Kushner, aged forty one, the incoming co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, is the founder and head of Thrive Capital, a venture capital powerhouse whose portfolio includes early bets on Instagram, Spotify, Stripe, Robinhood, and OpenAI. He is also the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump. Josh Kushner already held a minority stake in the Miami Heat and previously owned a piece of the Memphis Grizzlies, but he will now be required to divest his Heat holdings to satisfy NBA ownership rules before the Los Angeles Lakers deal can be finalized.
This unprecedented Los Angeles Lakers valuation has quickly become the biggest talking point across the sports business world this week. Interestingly, Kushner and Iger were originally pursuing a completely different opportunity. The duo had been working together on a bid for an NBA expansion franchise based in Las Vegas. In a stunning pivot that has left the sports world buzzing, they abandoned that plan and instead moved aggressively to acquire the Los Angeles Lakers outright, giving them instant entry into one of the most storied franchises in league history rather than starting from scratch with an expansion team.
The financial trajectory behind this Los Angeles Lakers sale is remarkable on its own. Mark Walter, who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, English Premier League club Chelsea, and a stake in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, purchased his controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers at a ten billion dollar valuation. Selling now at twelve point five billion dollars hands Walter a return of roughly twenty one percent in barely more than a year, an almost unheard of gain for a professional sports asset held for such a short period. Reports indicate that the Dodgers and the Sparks are not part of this particular transaction, meaning Walter will retain those franchises even as he exits the Los Angeles Lakers ownership picture.
The deal still requires formal approval from the NBA’s board of governors, along with completion of Thrive Capital’s due diligence process, before Iger and Kushner can officially assume control of the Los Angeles Lakers. Under the terms being honored from the original Buss family sale, Jeanie Buss is expected to remain the team’s governor for a minimum of five years, meaning the day-to-day continuity of the Los Angeles Lakers organization should remain largely intact in the near term.
Speaking about the transition and what it means for the Los Angeles Lakers going forward, Iger emphasized his intention to respect the arrangement already in place. “We have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they’ve contributed to this franchise,” Iger said. “And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie. If things change, they’ll change, but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is and what she represents in the organization.”
The timing of the sale is notable given the significant roster changes surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason. Longtime superstar LeBron James recently departed the franchise after eight seasons, signing a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. That departure closes a storied chapter for the Los Angeles Lakers, but the team still boasts a core built around Luka Doncic, who welcomed the new ownership group with an enthusiastic public message. Doncic said being a Laker means everything to him and that he is excited to build something special with the incoming owners.
Analysts tracking major sports transactions say the Los Angeles Lakers sale will likely become the benchmark valuation used for every future NBA ownership negotiation. This blockbuster sale also fits into a broader pattern of billionaires treating elite sports franchises as premium investment assets. Earlier this summer, the Khosla family agreed to purchase the Seattle Seahawks for nine point six billion dollars, the largest price ever paid for an NFL franchise at the time. The Los Angeles Lakers transaction now eclipses that figure entirely, reinforcing how rapidly valuations are climbing across every major American sports league as ultra-wealthy investors compete for a limited supply of marquee franchises.
Beyond basketball, Josh Kushner has been active on another major global sports front. His investment vehicle, Thrive Eternal, had been the lead investor in a proposed twenty billion dollar valuation deal that would have sold FIFA a minority stake to help run its World Cup tournaments for four point two billion dollars. That proposal was shelved by FIFA president Gianni Infantino following intense public backlash and boycott threats. Remarkably, just three months after that setback, Kushner closed what is now the largest sports ownership transaction in American history with the Los Angeles Lakers purchase.
Industry insiders note that few franchises anywhere in world sports carry the global recognition that the Los Angeles Lakers command today. For fans of the Los Angeles Lakers, the immediate question is what this ownership change means for the team’s championship ambitions. Both Iger and Kushner have stressed publicly that their goal is to compete at the highest level while preserving the franchise’s identity and connection to the city. Given Iger’s decades of experience running one of the world’s largest entertainment companies, and Kushner’s track record of backing category-defining businesses through Thrive Capital, expectations are already running high that the Los Angeles Lakers will continue investing aggressively in talent, infrastructure, and global brand growth.
The sale also carries symbolic weight far beyond basketball. It signals that even in an uncertain economic climate marked by inflation concerns and cautious consumer spending, appetite for owning iconic sports franchises among the world’s wealthiest individuals shows no sign of slowing down. The Los Angeles Lakers, with their eighteen championship banners, global fan base, and Hollywood connections, remain arguably the single most recognizable brand in American professional sports, and this record-breaking sale only reinforces that status.
As the NBA’s board of governors reviews the transaction in the coming weeks, all eyes across the sports and business world will remain on how quickly Iger and Kushner move to finalize their control of the Los Angeles Lakers and what strategic changes, if any, they plan to introduce. For now, the historic twelve point five billion dollar deal stands as a defining business story of the year, marking a new chapter for one of the most storied names in global sports.
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