Update — August 15, 2026: Bloomberg reported that Mark Walter is seeking to raise cash to pay down loans held by his insurance companies that have drawn Justice Department scrutiny, and that the Lakers sale is expected to help fund that effort. The article previously reflected that nobody had publicly said why Walter was selling the team again so soon, which has since changed.
Bob Iger and Josh Kushner have agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter for $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for a professional sports franchise in the United States, according to ESPN and CBS News. The agreement was reported on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. It is not a completed sale: the deal still needs approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors, the league’s panel of team owners that signs off on any change of control, before Iger and Kushner actually take over. Until then, Walter remains the team’s owner of record.
Key facts
- Price: $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for a U.S. professional sports franchise
- Buyers: Bob Iger, former Disney CEO, and Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital
- Seller: Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers
- Announced: Wednesday, August 12, 2026
- Still needed: approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors, next scheduled to meet in September 2026
- Condition of sale: Kushner must give up his minority stake in the Miami Heat
- Previous record: Walter bought the Lakers for $10 billion in October 2025
Who Iger and Kushner are
Iger is the former chief executive of the Walt Disney Company. His second stint running Disney ended on March 18, 2026, when Josh D’Amaro took over as CEO; Iger has stayed on as a Disney board member and senior adviser. Bloomberg reports that he also advises Kushner’s venture capital firm, Thrive Capital.
Kushner, 41, founded Thrive Capital in 2009. The firm has backed Instagram, Spotify, Stripe and OpenAI, and now manages roughly $25 billion. Forbes puts his net worth at $5.2 billion. He also co-founded the health insurer Oscar Health, where he serves as vice chairman, and is married to model Karlie Kloss, who is herself a limited partner in the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Reporting has not made public how the $12.5 billion purchase price splits between Iger and Kushner, or whether one of them will be the deal’s sole controlling owner.
Kushner’s older brother is Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, who served as a senior adviser in Trump’s first-term White House; their father is real estate developer Charles Kushner. That family tie fueled online speculation that the Trump administration had some hand in the deal’s timing. A White House spokesperson said the sale “has nothing to do with President Trump or his administration,” and a Thrive Capital spokesperson called the suggestion false.
A team Mark Walter owned for less than a year
The seller, Mark Walter, is chief executive of Guggenheim Partners and the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He became the Lakers’ majority owner after the NBA’s Board of Governors approved his purchase from the Buss family on October 30, 2025, at a $10 billion valuation — a record at the time, now surpassed by this sale’s $12.5 billion price. He was not a newcomer to the franchise: Walter had held a roughly 27% minority stake in the Lakers since 2021 before buying control. Bloomberg reported on August 12, citing people familiar with the matter, that Walter’s TWG Global is seeking outside capital to pay down loans held by his insurance companies that have drawn Justice Department and SEC scrutiny, and that the Lakers sale is expected to help fund that effort; Walter himself has not addressed his reasons for selling on the record.
Walter is not selling any of his other teams. Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said the Lakers sale doesn’t touch the ballclub: “They’re completely separate,” he said, adding “there are no changes here, or contemplated here.”
Iger has said the deal “came together in three days” after he and Kushner learned Walter might sell. The two had been exploring a bid for a Las Vegas NBA expansion team before pivoting to buy the Lakers instead.
The federal investigation Walter is facing
Walter is separately facing scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission, who are examining private-credit deals involving two insurance companies he controls, Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co. Both insurers have received subpoenas, and the inquiry reportedly began with an internal whistleblower complaint. Delaware Life reclassified roughly $16 billion of investments as affiliated, after previously listing about $1 billion, and Clear Spring reclassified $4.6 billion of loans. Regulatory filings said the deals were misclassified: loans that were effectively between Walter’s own companies were not disclosed as related-party transactions. The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) seized Walter’s phone and laptop in September 2025. He has not been charged with any crime. A spokesperson for TWG Global, Walter’s business holding company, said Walter “and TWG have always acted in good faith” and that the company expects the matters to be “resolved favorably.” No reporting has established that the investigation is why Walter is selling; that connection remains unconfirmed.
What still has to happen
- NBA approval: The Board of Governors is next scheduled to meet in New York in September 2026 — an exact date has not been confirmed — and the approval process can then take several weeks.
- Kushner’s Heat stake: NBA rules bar an owner from holding a stake in more than one team, so Kushner must give up his existing minority stake in the Miami Heat, reported at under 5%, before the Lakers purchase can go through. He previously held a stake in the Memphis Grizzlies before moving it to the Heat.
What Iger and Kushner have said about the team
In a joint statement, Iger and Kushner said: “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.” They added that they have “immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss” and said they intend to “build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.” Neither the buyers nor Walter has said anything publicly about changes to the roster, coaching staff, front office or ticket prices.
What happens to Jeanie Buss
Jeanie Buss, whose family sold the Lakers to Walter in 2025, kept roughly a 15% stake in that sale and was granted the right to remain the team’s governor — its official representative to the league, a role separate from ownership — for at least five years. The sale to Iger and Kushner is for Walter’s controlling stake; it does not include Buss’s smaller stake, which stays in place under the current agreement. Iger has said the incoming ownership intends to honor that arrangement, though he stopped short of promising it outright: “We have every intention to honor the agreement that was made between Mark and Jeanie,” he said, adding, “If things change, they’ll change, but we’re going into this with enormous respect and appreciation for who she is.” That commitment has not been finalized under the new ownership, and it is not yet clear what Buss’s day-to-day role will look like once the sale closes.