Former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner have purchased the Los Angeles Lakers at a record-shattering $12.5 billion valuation, a deal that closed faster than most people buy a car.
The pair unveiled the acquisition Wednesday morning after what Iger described as a 72-hour negotiation sprint. They bought the majority stake from Mark Walter, a billionaire whose corporate empire is currently the subject of a federal investigation, and who held the team for barely more than a year before flipping it at a $2.5 billion markup. The deal still requires approval from the NBA's Board of Governors, a process Breitbart noted could take several weeks.
That timeline alone should raise eyebrows. Walter took control of the Lakers from the Buss family in June 2025 at roughly a $10 billion valuation. Fourteen months later, he sold for $2.5 billion more. Federal prosecutors and the SEC are reportedly scrutinizing Walter's business empire in connection with tax fraud investigations, the Associated Press reported, a detail that may explain the speed of his exit.
Iger told the New York Post that he and Kushner had originally pursued an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas. Then someone suggested Walter might be willing to sell.
"We were involved in pursuing the new franchise in Vegas. And while that happened, it was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his stake in the Lakers. And we immediately decided that given the value of the franchise and the iconic nature of the team, that we would be really smart to pursue it. The deal came together in three days."
Three business days for a $12.5 billion transaction. That price sets a new high mark for any U.S. professional sports franchise, eclipsing the $10 billion record Walter himself set just one year earlier when he bought the team from the Buss family.
The purchase vehicle is Thrive Eternal, a holding company Kushner's Thrive Capital launched earlier this year. Kushner described the firm's investment philosophy as targeting "iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience" that "could not be easily replaced by digital innovations, but could be enhanced by them." Before the deal can close, Kushner must also divest his minority stakes in the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies.
For a man about to become one of the most prominent owners in professional basketball, Iger brings an unusual backstory. In a January 2021 podcast appearance, he admitted he was a lifelong New York Knicks fan who adopted the Los Angeles Clippers, not the Lakers, after moving to California.
Fox News highlighted the irony: Iger once said on the podcast, "I couldn't root for the Lakers very easily. It just was not in my DNA." His reason for picking the Clippers? "Their seats were a lot cheaper than the Lakers."
Now he owns the franchise whose tickets he once found too expensive. Iger said the news was "still sinking in" and described his position as "very new."
Iger moved quickly to signal continuity. He confirmed the new ownership intends to honor the existing agreement that keeps Jeanie Buss as team governor for at least five years, an arrangement she struck with Walter when the Buss family sold after 46 years of ownership.
"We have enormous respect and appreciation for Jeanie, her father and what they've contributed to this franchise. And we have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie."
But honoring an agreement and maintaining the family's influence are different things. Pete Zayas, co-host of the Laker Film Room podcast, put it bluntly after the news broke.
"We're not in Kansas anymore. We don't have the family that had been running it for 40 years. We're in some different waters for sure."
His co-host Darius Soriano raised the financial question that will define this ownership group's credibility: "How deep are their pockets? They just paid an extraordinary amount of money for this franchise, and putting so much money on the table can be tricky. Are you going to follow through on that investment?"
It is a fair question. The Lakers have won 17 championships, but the last one came in the 2020 COVID bubble. The last non-pandemic title was in 2010. The best recent playoff showing was a 2023 Western Conference Finals appearance that ended in a sweep by the Denver Nuggets. LeBron James departed earlier this summer, signing with the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent. The roster now centers on Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
Iger's corporate résumé is undeniable. During two stints as Disney CEO, the most recent ending earlier this year when he handed the role to Josh D'Amaro, he engineered the acquisitions of Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, and expanded the theme park empire to Shanghai. He brokered ESPN's swap of 10% of its equity for control of NFL media properties including the NFL Network.
Whether that translates to running a basketball franchise is an open question Iger himself acknowledged. As Deadline reported, he was careful not to overpromise.
"We're smart enough to know what we know and what we don't know. It's just premature to speculate at all about what we plan to do, because frankly, we haven't made any plans yet. Again, we go into this with an appreciation of who the Lakers are. And we just want to build value from today on."
That last phrase, "build value", is worth noting. It is the language of an investor, not a fan. And it sits next to a franchise that already needs significant investment to stay competitive.
Beyond the roster, the Lakers' biggest business question is local television. Charter's Spectrum SportsNet holds a 20-year deal for Lakers local broadcast rights that runs through the 2031, 32 season, paying the team $200 million last year. A Puck report cited in Deadline's coverage noted that Walter had shown "openness to taking ownership of Spectrum SportsNet away from Charter" before selling the team.
Iger's deep ties to ESPN make that thread particularly interesting. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, Iger's former direct report, acknowledged at a CNBC conference in June the "RSN problem that the entire industry is grappling with right now." Pitaro added that regional sports networks "should be looking for reach, which we can provide." ESPN relaunched its app in dramatically expanded form roughly a year ago, and the NBA is aiming to launch a hub for local broadcast rights by the 2027, 28 season.
The Lakers currently rank behind the Golden State Warriors ($833 million in 2025 revenue) and the New York Knicks ($620 million) in NBA revenue, according to Deadline's sister publication Sportico. Meanwhile, the Clippers generated just over $100 million in sponsor revenue in their first year at the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, second in the NBA, while the Lakers remain at the 26-year-old Crypto.com Arena downtown.
Walter had already begun reshaping the front office before selling. In February, he brought over Lon Rosen, a longtime Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer, to serve as Lakers president of business operations. The team also let go of a number of longtime staffers last spring. Whether Rosen stays under the new ownership, and what role the Dodgers' operational blueprint plays going forward, remains unclear.
Reaction split predictably. Magic Johnson, the franchise's most iconic figure, offered a full endorsement on social media. "Laker fans, you couldn't have two better owners," Johnson said. "I've known Bob personally for over 40 years, he has always loved the Lakers and basketball and he will bring championships back to LA."
Luka Doncic, one of the team's primary stars, struck a forward-looking tone: "Being a Laker means everything to me, and I'm excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA."
Bill Simmons, founder of The Ringer and head of talk at Spotify, took a different view. "Conspiracy Bill is overheating," he posted on X, calling it "the most shocking NBA sale in a long time. The Lakers got flipped!"
Simmons's instinct, that a franchise changing hands twice in 14 months at a $2.5 billion price jump warrants scrutiny, is not unreasonable. Walter bought the Lakers for $10 billion, installed a Dodgers executive, let staff go, and then sold for 25% more in a matter of months while federal investigators circled his business empire. The NBA Board of Governors will presumably want answers before signing off.
Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, brings his own investment pedigree through Thrive Capital. Iger became a minority investor in the firm in 2022, and the two built the relationship that led to the Lakers bid. The joint statement from the pair leaned on reverence: "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."
Stewardship is the right word. The Lakers are not just a basketball team, they are a cultural institution that has drawn courtside regulars from Jeffrey Katzenberg to Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, and Selena Gomez. The franchise traces its roots to Minneapolis before becoming synonymous with Los Angeles through the Showtime era of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the championship runs of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
Iger knows how to manage iconic brands. He spent decades doing it at Disney. But a basketball franchise is not a theme park. The fans are louder, the results are public every 48 hours, and no amount of corporate synergy puts the ball in the basket.
Twelve and a half billion dollars buys a lot of legacy. What it buys in championships remains to be seen.
