Mark Walter Selling Lakers for Record $12.5 Billion Just 14 Months After Buying Team From Buss Family
Dodgers owner Mark Walter has agreed to sell the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion, a $2.5 billion profit over the record price he paid the Buss family in 2025.
Mark Walter is about to walk away from the Los Angeles Lakers with a $2.5 billion profit after barely a year in charge. The Dodgers owner has agreed to sell his controlling stake in the Lakers to Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger for a record-setting $12.5 billion, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, shattering the mark Walter himself set when he bought the team from the Buss family just 14 months ago.
Walter, the billionaire chief executive of Guggenheim Partners, has built one of the most sprawling ownership portfolios in global sports. He leads the group that purchased the Dodgers for $2.15 billion back in 2012, a deal that looked rich at the time and has since made him and his partners a fortune as the team’s value soared past $6 billion. He also holds stakes in Chelsea FC, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, Andretti Global and the PWHL, and in June 2025 he struck the deal to take majority control of the Lakers from Jerry Buss’s family, who had run the franchise since 1979.
A Record Sale, Then Another Record Sale
Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors last October at a valuation of roughly $10 billion, at the time the largest sum ever paid for a franchise in North American sports. That record barely survived a year. Kushner and Iger, who had reportedly been in talks to buy an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, pivoted and made an aggressive offer for the Lakers instead, agreeing to a deal that values the team at $12.5 billion. The number tops every previous benchmark, including the roughly $6 billion sale of the Boston Celtics and Michael Jordan’s $3 billion exit from the Charlotte Hornets just a few years earlier, underscoring how fast valuations are climbing across the NBA — a surge that has also fueled growing NBA futures and prop betting markets tracked on sportsbooks across the country.
The sale still requires sign-off from the league’s Board of Governors, a step widely viewed as a formality given how smoothly Walter’s own purchase cleared that same hurdle. Jeanie Buss, who had already agreed to stay on as the Lakers’ governor for at least five years under the terms of the original sale, is expected to remain in that role through the transition to new ownership. “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. “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.”
What Happens to Walter’s Empire Now
Walter is not stepping away from professional sports ownership. He will retain his position atop the Dodgers, the franchise that first made him a fixture in Los Angeles sports circles, and his other holdings across soccer, motorsports and women’s hockey remain untouched by the Lakers sale. “Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life,” Walter said in a statement addressing the deal. “An extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family. I am grateful to Jeanie Buss, the Buss family, the players, and the staff for welcoming me into this chapter. The Lakers belong to Los Angeles, and I have every confidence the best is still ahead.”
The timing adds intrigue for market-watchers tracking the NBA’s ownership landscape, given that the transaction lands amid a reported federal probe into insurance companies tied to Walter’s broader business holdings. Whether that scrutiny factored into his decision to sell remains unclear, but the numbers speak for themselves: a $2.5 billion gain in roughly 14 months on one of the most recognizable brands in American sports. The shift in control is unlikely to affect on-court decisions in the short term, though league insiders will be watching closely for front-office changes once Kushner and Iger formally take over, and bettors weighing early Lakers title-odds moves once the DraftKings promo code boards react to the ownership news.
If the Board of Governors approves the sale as expected at its September meeting, the Lakers will have changed hands twice in under two years, a stretch of turnover that stands in stark contrast to more than four decades of Buss family stewardship. For a league already riding a wave of soaring franchise values, Walter’s swift and staggeringly profitable turnaround adds fresh fuel to speculation about just how high NBA team prices can climb next.