The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record-setting $12.5 billion, according to ESPN, marking another seismic shift in ownership of the historic NBA franchise.
The reported sale comes less than a year since Mark Walter, the majority owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, became the Lakers’ majority owner after purchasing a controlling interest in the team at a $10 billion valuation. Now, he’s selling the franchise to Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, and Iger, the former Disney CEO, for an even bigger price tag.
Iger and Kushner, whose brother is a son-in-law of President Donald Trump, have been frontrunners in bids tied to the potential expansion of the NBA franchise into Las Vegas, which does not host an NBA team. Kushner has reportedly been a major donor to Democrats.
“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,” Kushner and Iger said in a statement first obtained by ESPN. “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.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Lakers did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment Wednesday.
The sale must be approved by the NBA’s board of governor’s before it can be finalized. That process can take weeks, according to ESPN, and the next board meeting is slated for next month in New York.
Walter said that “owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honors” of his life in a statement to ESPN on Wednesday.
Walter, CEO and chairman of diversified holding company TWG Global and the global financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, is under federal investigation on allegations of tax fraud.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, alongside the SEC and the FBI, are probing loans made by insurance companies under the billionaire financier’s purview. Authorities are investigating whether $16 billion in loans from life insurance companies Walter controls were improperly directed to his own affiliated companies without proper disclosure, according to a July report from Bloomberg. No charges have been filed in connection to the probe.
Walter called his brief ownership of the Lakers an “extraordinary investment,” and thanked “the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family,” in a statement to ESPN following news of the sale.
“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,” Walter said, referring to the former owners of the Lakers. The Buss family owned the franchise from 1979 to 2025, when they sold majority control to Walter.
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