Lakers Sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a Record $12.5 Billion

Mark Walter has agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion, a record price for a professional sports franchise, according to ESPN's reporting on August 12.

The figure is the story. Walter took controlling interest in the franchise in October 2025 at a valuation of roughly $10 billion, itself a record at the time. The agreed price marks a rise of about a quarter in under a year, on a franchise whose ownership had been stable for decades before that.

ESPN reports the transaction moved unusually fast, quoting Kushner saying the deal came together in three days. Kushner and Iger had been pursuing an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas and pivoted to an offer for the Lakers instead, per the same reporting.

Kushner, 41, founded the venture firm Thrive Capital and co-founded Oscar Health; ESPN reports he holds a minority stake in the Miami Heat that he would have to divest. Iger, 75, ran the Walt Disney Company as chief executive from 2005 to 2020 and again from 2022 to 2026, and is controlling owner of Angel City FC in the NWSL.

Two things are not yet settled and this desk will not report them as if they were. The sale is agreed rather than closed: it requires approval from the NBA board of governors, whose next meeting ESPN places in September. And ESPN notes Walter is under federal investigation over alleged tax fraud at other companies tied to him, with U.S. prosecutors examining whether two insurers he controls failed to disclose private credit holdings, and a parallel SEC inquiry reported by Bloomberg in July. Neither the investigation's bearing on the sale nor its outcome is established.

What to watch is the September board meeting, the terms of any Heat divestiture, and whether the record price resets valuations across the league the way Walter's own purchase did ten months ago.