Kushner Locks a $12.5 Billion Lakers Sale, Buss Fights On

Mark Walter and Josh Kushner agreed on remaining terms of a $12.5 billion Lakers sale after meeting Thursday at Walter’s Florida home. People close to the talks said they expect a formal agreement soon, after which the NBA reviews financing and the ownership structure. Kushner told Walter he has raised the money to close.

The handshake prices the franchise. It does not settle who sits in the governor’s chair, who else is on the cap table, or how a Los Angeles court treats the last Buss family shares.

Walter and Kushner Closed the Last Gaps in Florida

The meeting was on Oct. 29 at Walter’s home. The two men had been grinding through details since an August agreement that valued the Los Angeles Lakers at $12.5 billion, with former Disney chief Bob Iger in the buyer group. League review generally takes time, those close to the talks said, because the NBA looks at financing and how the group is built.

THE TERMS THEY LOCKED IN FLORIDA

• The price: Control of the Lakers is valued at $12.5 billion, the highest figure yet put on a sports team in a control sale.
• The paper: A formal agreement is expected to be signed soon, then sent to the league.
• The money claim: Kushner assured Walter the capital to complete the sale is in hand.
• The face of the club: Kushner is in line to be governor; Iger is slated as a minority owner who runs the team day to day.

Walter, who also controls the Los Angeles Dodgers, has said he did not plan to sell until Kushner called. “We just received an offer on the Lakers that was quite a good offer, that we decided we’d pursue selling it,” he said. On that August call, he added, “If he hadn’t called me the way he did, we wouldn’t be selling the Lakers, either.”

The Dodgers, he has said, are not part of this exit. People around his holding company have also said there is no fire sale of that club, even as he has moved other sports pieces. He sold a nearly 13 percent stake in Chelsea in August and has been shopping the WNBA’s Sparks. Kushner and Iger are not in on the Sparks, a person familiar with that process said.

A $10 Billion Club Changed Hands Twice in a Year

The NBA remain the team’s Governor for five years language sat in the league’s own release when it signed off on Walter. On Oct. 30, 2025, the Board of Governors unanimously approved his purchase of the majority interest from the Buss family, at a $10 billion valuation. Commissioner Adam Silver thanked Jeanie Buss and her family for 46 years of leadership and said he was thrilled she would stay as governor. The $12.5 billion figure is a 25 percent jump from that mark.

Walter did not write a $10 billion check for the whole club. He and Todd Boehly already held 27 percent, bought from Philip Anschutz in 2021 at a $5.5 billion valuation. The Buss family kept a minority slice so Jeanie could still meet the league’s 15 percent test for a governor. In rough terms, the 2025 control deal was well under $10 billion in cash changing hands, before debt.

The Lakers site said Walter had finalized his acquisition of a majority stake the same day the board voted. “It’s a privilege to work alongside Jeanie Buss as we maintain that excellence,” Walter said then. Jeanie called him a friend and colleague who had shown he could bring titles to Los Angeles. Less than a year later, she learned of his agreement with Kushner and Iger only hours before it became public on Aug. 12.

HOW THE LAKERS CHANGED HANDS

1. 1979: Jerry Buss buys the Lakers, the NHL Kings, and The Forum as a package for a reported $67.5 million.
2. 2013: Dr. Buss dies. Control sits in a family trust. Jeanie Buss serves as governor.
3. July 2021: Walter and Boehly take Anschutz’s 27 percent at a $5.5 billion valuation.
4. June 18, 2025: The Buss family agrees to sell control to Walter at $10 billion. Each of the six children takes about $800 million before taxes, about $500 million after.
5. Oct. 30, 2025: The board unanimously approves Walter. Jeanie stays governor for at least five years.
6. Aug. 9 to 12, 2026: Kushner reaches Walter after an associate’s first pass is waved off. Iger later said the agreement came together in three days.
7. Aug. 12, 2026: The $12.5 billion sale is announced. Iger and Kushner put out a joint statement of respect for Jerry and Jeanie Buss.
8. Oct. 29, 2026: Walter and Kushner meet in Florida and close the last open terms.

Jerry Buss’s club spent almost half a century as a family business. Two control agreements in 16 months ended that, at least on paper. The remaining fight is over whether any Buss name stays on the cap table at all.

Who Writes the Checks in a $12.5 Billion Sale?

Iger is the famous name. Kushner, 41, is the one who has to put up at least 15 percent, about $1.875 billion at this valuation, to be governor. There can be only one governor. People close to him have said Iger will be a minority owner and an alternate governor who leads the operation, not the control person. That split is the deal, even if the August headlines ran the other way.

They are not paying $12.5 billion in cash for 100 percent of the stock. The Buss remainder, if it stays out, cuts the check. League debt is capped at $475 million. Institutional funds may hold up to 30 percent of a team’s equity, with no single fund over 20 percent, which leaves room for more than $3.5 billion of this price to come through private equity. Thrive Capital has more than $50 billion under management on a regulatory filing. Iger and Kushner together are not a $12.5 billion balance sheet.

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. 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.

Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, joint statement, Aug. 12, 2026

Lakers great Magic Johnson wrote that fans “couldn’t have two better owners,” saying he had known Iger more than 40 years and that Iger would “bring championships back to LA.” The quieter argument around the club is not the friendship. It is that a franchise run as a family shop is being recut as a fund asset with a famous operator on the microphone.

Thrive Eternal Needed a League Rule Change

Kushner launched Thrive Eternal in April as a permanent-capital vehicle for a small number of holdings he wants to keep for decades. Its first sports bet was a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants. He described those targets as assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology, “iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience.” Iger rejoined Thrive as an adviser that same week, after a short earlier turn as a partner and after his Disney run ended in March.

NBA rules had blocked an institutional firm from backing a purchase led by its own manager. In September the league amended that policy so a firm and its executives can invest in the same franchise at the same time, a change made in part so Thrive Eternal could sit beside Kushner on this deal. The tradeoff is sharp: if the firm is in a team with one of its executives, it cannot hold a piece of another NBA club. Kushner still has to sell his limited stake in the Miami Heat before the board votes. He previously held a piece of the Memphis Grizzlies.

The pair had spent months, and hired a bank, on a Las Vegas expansion bid. Iger said someone then suggested Walter might sell. They pivoted in three days. Expansion is still a league project for Las Vegas and Seattle, with no promise both cities get a team.

$250 Million Is the Opening Price for a Seat

On Oct. 30, four people familiar with the raise said Kushner and Iger have been offering minority stakes starting at $250 million to $300 million, with some investors expected to put in more. A representative for the two declined to comment. Filling limited partners after a headline agreement is now ordinary in the NBA. The Celtics did it after Bill Chisholm’s purchase was announced.

HOW A $12.5 BILLION CHECK GETS WRITTEN

• Governor slice: Kushner needs about $1.875 billion of his own, or 15 percent, to hold the chair.
• Fund capital: Thrive Eternal can now invest beside him under the September rule change.
• Limited partners: Seats have been shopped from $250 million to $300 million, and higher.
• Debt: The league caps team debt at $475 million.
• Heat stock: Kushner must exit Miami before the board can bless Los Angeles.

Podcast host Bill Simmons said on Oct. 29 that Kushner was still $5 billion to $6 billion short and “can’t find the money,” and that Iger was putting in “like $63 million.” One person on the raise said that picture is false. Two others described heavy demand for a seat, without naming who has committed. Those claims can sit next to Walter’s assurance that the money is raised. Syndication is how these sales actually close. The board, when it votes, will be looking at names, not at a podcast.

Jeanie Buss Is Fighting for the Last 17.8%

The Florida paper covers Walter’s controlling stake. It does not, by itself, decide the Buss Family Trust’s 17.8% remainder, worth about $2.2 billion at $12.5 billion. People who have briefed the buyer group have said that court fight does not block the Walter-Kushner sale. It does decide whether Jeanie can stay governor.

NBA rules require a governor to hold at least 15 percent, without partners. The trust kept 17.8 percent in the 2025 sale so she could clear that bar under a family-ownership exception. If the trust sells, she cannot remain governor on the current setup. The 2025 contract also let her stay as an alternate governor after the five-year term if she or her entities kept at least 5 percent.

Her five siblings, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey, and Jesse, voted 5-0 in August to use a tag-along right from the Walter deal and sell with Kushner and Iger. Jeanie abstained, then went to Los Angeles Superior Court. Through lawyer Adam Streisand she filed a petition in August asking the court to block the sale, remove Janie and Joey as co-trustees, and hold the brothers in contempt. She leans on a 2017 order, entered after Jim and Johnny tried to push her off the board, that told trustees to take steps reasonably available to keep her as controlling owner while the trust holds Lakers stock.

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. 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.

Bob Iger, interview after the August agreement

On Oct. 7 the five siblings filed opposition and called her petition “legally and factually baseless.” They said a two-thirds vote of living trustees is enough to terminate the trust and that their focus is closing on schedule, with all beneficiaries treated equally. Janie and Joey, as co-trustees, filed again in mid-October asking a judge to toss the petition, arguing they were required to carry out the vote. The 2017 order, that filing says, does not force the trust to exist for Jeanie’s lifetime or to hold any minimum percentage. A hearing is set for Dec. 8.

Jeanie still represented the Lakers at the board’s September meeting in New York. She sat courtside at a preseason game on Oct. 8. The five siblings, in an August statement, said they have “tremendous respect for Bob Iger and Josh Kushner” and that the Lakers had been “one of the greatest privileges of our lives.” The trust, in their telling, was built to let them leave with the next sale. Her telling is that they cannot leave if it costs her the chair her father designed for her.

A New Number for Every NBA Franchise

Walter’s 2025 purchase had already broken the prior control-sale mark, the Celtics’ first tranche of the deal at $6.1 billion, which the board approved in August 2025. Forbes later carried the Celtics at $6.7 billion on an October 2025 calculation. The rest of that Boston sale is slated for 2028 at a $7.4 billion valuation. Phoenix went to Mat Ishbia at $4 billion in 2023. The NFL’s Washington Commanders went for $6.05 billion the same year and held the North American record until Boston.

CONTROL SALES THAT SET THE LADDER

Within weeks of the August Lakers agreement, a 10 percent slice of the Atlanta Falcons was struck at a $10.6 billion team valuation, and Marc Stad moved toward control of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx at $4.5 billion. Those are not Lakers comps in court. They are what happens when a $12.5 billion print hits a league that already lets funds own 30 percent of a club. The next owner who refinances, or sells, walks into a meeting with that number on the table.

Iger said the three-day price was the easy part. Building a group that can pass background checks is the work, and it has to be done before the board votes. Close timing also hits Walter’s tax bill, which is one reason the Florida meeting was not a press conference. It was a date on a calendar.

The NBA Still Has to Vote on This Deal

Three-quarters of the Board of Governors have to approve a sale. Walter’s own file took 134 days from the June 18, 2025 agreement to the Oct. 30 vote, and it passed without a no. People who have watched this one have pointed to a possible November board meeting, but the league has not announced a date, and financing files slip. Kushner’s prior minority stakes in the Heat and Grizzlies may shorten the biography section. They do not skip the money section.

Walter’s insurance companies are under a federal investigation of loans those firms made to holdings inside TWG Global, the vehicle that also holds his sports clubs. In July, TWG said Mark Walter and the company “have always acted in good faith,” are cooperating, and are “confident these matters will be resolved favorably.” He has said the Lakers sale is about the offer he got, not about that file. The league will run its own review of financing anyway.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Walter’s stake: Outstanding terms with Kushner are agreed at a $12.5 billion valuation after the Oct. 29 Florida meeting.
• Roles: Kushner is the planned governor; Iger is the planned operator with a minority piece.
• Jeanie’s floor: She needs 15 percent to stay governor. The trust still holds 17.8 percent, and a judge hears that fight on Dec. 8.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The close date: No signing date is public, and no board vote has been noticed.
• The full cap table: LP names, Thrive Eternal’s exact slice, and Iger’s dollar amount are not disclosed.
• The Buss shares: Whether 17.8 percent goes to the buyers, stays in the trust, or is split among siblings is still in court.

A Los Angeles judge is set to hear Jeanie Buss’s petition on Dec. 8. The league’s owners still have to vote.