Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger have reached an agreement to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for roughly $12.5 billion, according to ESPN, a deal that would mark the highest price ever paid for a U.S. sports franchise and end Mark Walter's ownership of the team after less than a year and a half.
The transaction is a stunning turnaround: Walter, the Guggenheim Partners billionaire who also controls the Los Angeles Dodgers, closed his purchase of the Lakers roughly 14 months ago. The new price represents a 21% increase over that deal, underscoring how quickly valuations for marquee U.S. franchises are compounding as new pools of capital — from private equity funds to venture financiers to media moguls — compete for a shrinking supply of trophy assets.
Kushner will be the controlling owner, according to a representative for his firm, Thrive Capital. Iger, the longtime Disney CEO and chairman who oversaw the company's stewardship of ESPN and its sports rights portfolio, joins as a partner — a notable pivot for an executive who spent decades on the media side of sports economics now moving to the ownership side.
'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,' Kushner and Iger said in a joint statement, adding they have 'immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss' and intend to build on that foundation.
It remains unclear exactly how much of the team is changing hands. Walter did not own the Lakers outright, and Jeanie Buss, the longtime governor whose family built the franchise into a global brand starting with her father Jerry's 1979 purchase, is reported to remain an investor.
The deal also has ripple effects beyond Los Angeles. Kushner and Iger were among the most serious bidders for the NBA's new Las Vegas expansion franchise; their pivot to the Lakers could clear a path for another finalist group, the Walton-Laurie family, to land the expansion team instead.
This is the latest and largest data point in Kushner's rapidly expanding sports portfolio. His Thrive Eternal vehicle invested earlier this year in the San Francisco Giants and was reportedly in talks to lead an investment into FIFA's roughly $20 billion commercial rights venture before that effort stalled.
For the NBA, the sale further validates the league's decision to loosen private equity and institutional ownership rules, and it reinforces a broader trend: marquee franchises across the NBA, NFL and MLB are now routinely trading hands at valuations that dwarf recent comparable sales, driven by scarcity, media rights growth, and a widening pool of ultra-wealthy bidders willing to pay premiums for cultural cachet as much as cash flow.
With the Dodgers, Lakers and now a raft of other West Coast franchises tied to overlapping ownership webs, the Southern California sports market is increasingly concentrated among a handful of financiers — a dynamic worth watching as the Lakers begin a new chapter under Kushner and Iger's stewardship.
Why it matters
The deal resets the ceiling for U.S. franchise values, signals how fast institutional and venture capital are cycling through marquee sports assets, and shows media dealmakers like Iger now moving from broadcasters to owners.