Lakers Suddenly Sold for Record $12.5 Billion as Federal Investigation Swirls Around Owner Mark Walter

By AJ Tiarsmith Published Aug 13, 7:17AM EDT

Quick Read

The Lakers sold for a record $12.5 billion to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, giving Walter a $2.5 billion profit in just 14 months.
Federal investigators are probing $16 billion in loans on TWG Global's balance sheet, though no charges have been filed against Walter.
Iger and Kushner arrived shopping for an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas and left owning the sport's most valuable franchise.
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Lakers Suddenly Sold for Record $12.5 Billion as Federal Investigation Swirls Around Owner Mark Walter — © 24/7 Wall St.

The Los Angeles Lakers changed hands at a record $12.5 billion, with owner Mark Walter cashing out after 14 months. Walter, who bought the team from the Buss family at a roughly $10 billion valuation, agreed to sell to former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner for $12.5 billion. Terms were hammered out in about 72 hours. The backdrop: a federal investigation into billions moving through Walter’s broader business empire.

A Deal Negotiated Over a Long Weekend

Iger and Kushner had reportedly been exploring an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas before pivoting to buy the Lakers outright. Iger and Kushner first approached Walter on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, with terms agreed by Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. The transaction hands Walter a roughly $2.5 billion paper profit in barely more than a year. The deal is not yet closed. The NBA Board of Governors must approve the transfer, with the league’s next scheduled board meeting in September. Until that vote, Walter remains majority owner. Under the deal, the Buss family retains a 15% stake and Jeanie Buss will continue as the team’s governor for at least five years, terms carried over from her original 2025 agreement with Walter.

The $12.5 billion figure is the largest transaction in sports history. The Dallas Cowboys carry a higher estimated valuation, around $15.5 billion, but the Jones family is not selling, so that number is an appraisal rather than a price.

Who Is Buying

Iger ran Disney twice and shaped its sports-adjacent assets, including ESPN. Kushner founded Thrive Capital, a venture firm known for early bets on Instagram, Spotify, and OpenAI. The pair originally approached the league about an expansion team in Las Vegas before turning attention to the sport’s marquee franchise.

How Walter Got Here

The Buss family agreed to sell the Lakers to Walter in June 2025 at a roughly $10 billion valuation; the NBA’s Board of Governors approved that deal on Oct. 30, 2025. Walter co-founded Guggenheim Partners and built a sprawling sports empire through his conglomerate TWG Global, which also holds stakes in the LA Dodgers, English Premier League club Chelsea, the WNBA’s LA Sparks, and the Cadillac Formula 1 team.

In a statement to ESPN, Walter said: “Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors of my life. An extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family.”

The Federal Investigation

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan are investigating how approximately $16 billion in loans ended up on the balance sheet of TWG Global, per The Wall Street Journal. Investigators are examining whether private-credit investments made by Walter-controlled insurance companies, including Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life & Annuity Co., under the Group 1001/TWG Global umbrella, were properly disclosed to regulators, and whether fraud occurred. No charges have been filed against Walter or his companies, and reporting does not indicate the investigation involves the Lakers, the Dodgers, or any sports franchise. A TWG Global spokesperson said: “Those who have done business with Mark know him as honest and straightforward. Nothing about these transactions was any different. We are confident these matters will be resolved favorably.”

What Could Come Next

Sportico has raised the open question of whether Walter’s other properties, particularly the Dodgers, could be sold next given the shared corporate structure. The concrete signal to watch is the NBA Board of Governors meeting in September. If approved, $12.5 billion becomes the new ceiling for a franchise sale, set over a long weekend by two buyers who came shopping for an expansion team and left with the sport’s most valuable asset. The macro tailwind is real: the VIX sits at 15.28, and the fed funds rate has held at 3.75% for eight months. Calm markets write big checks.

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About the Author AJ Tiarsmith →

AJ has spent the past 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.