Lakers Sold for a Record $12.5 Billion: Bob Iger and Josh Kushner to Become New Owners

According to ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers are being sold at a valuation of roughly $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise in U.S. history. The buyers, former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, are purchasing the team from Mark Walter, who bought the controlling stake from the Buss family just 14 months ago at a $10 billion valuation — meaning his investment has already returned roughly 21%.

"As lifelong NBA fans, it's a tremendous honor for us to be the stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most storied franchises in the world," Kushner and Iger said in a joint statement. Iger stepped down as Disney's CEO in March, handing the role to Josh D'Amaro, and afterward took on an advisory position at Kushner's Thrive Capital — notably, Iger had already served as a venture partner at the same fund before returning to Disney in 2022 to replace Bob Chapek.

The 41-year-old Kushner has built Thrive Capital into one of tech's most influential venture firms through early bets on companies like Instagram, Spotify, Stripe and OpenAI. This year he launched a second fund, Thrive Eternal, designed to hold permanent capital in sports franchises and other "iconic brands" — its first deal was a minority stake in the San Francisco Giants.

In 1979, Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and turned professional basketball into a Hollywood spectacle known as "Showtime" — celebrities courtside, a fast, camera-ready style of play, an arena built like a stage. Every league in the world later copied the formula. Now that spectacle is being bought by a man who spent his entire career running the biggest entertainment company on earth — Iger built Disney by acquiring storytelling powerhouses like Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox.

The deal is also a reminder of Kushner's political and business ties: he is the brother of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, though he has carved out his own distinct political stance — in 2018 he took part in the "March for Our Lives" gun-control demonstration. The deal also comes just three months after Kushner's Thrive Eternal fund was named the lead investor in a plan to sell FIFA's commercial rights at a $20 billion valuation, a plan FIFA scrapped within a week after facing fierce pushback.