Los Angeles Lakers to be sold for $10 billion valuation, becoming most valuable sports franchise in the world

[ad_1] The Buss household has agreed to promote a controlling curiosity within the Los Angeles Lakers to the present proprietor of the L.A. Dodgers, CBS Information Los Angeles has confirmed.

Mark Walter, Chief Govt Officer of Guggenheim Companions, will assume majority possession over the enduring franchise as soon as the deal is made official. Present proprietor Jeanie Buss will retain the title of governor, which means she'll proceed to characterize the workforce in league issues. She's ran the workforce since her father Jerry's dying in 2013.

"We are able to affirm: Mark Walter is coming into into an settlement to accumulate extra pursuits within the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, of which he has been a stakeholder since 2021," stated a press release from the workforce.

The anticipated sale is valued at about $10 billion, first reported by ESPN, shattering the present report for the most important sale of a sports activities workforce in historical past. The earlier report was final yr's $6.1 billion sale of the Lakers' rival Boston Celtics.

When the sale goes official, the Lakers would be the most beneficial franchise in sports activities by practically $4 billion.

Mark Walter, proprietor and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers previous to Recreation 1 of a Nationwide League Division Sequence baseball recreation on Saturday, October 7, 2023. Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-Information through Getty Photographs

Except for the Dodgers, Walter additionally owns the Skilled Ladies's Hockey League, the Los Angeles Sparks and has curiosity in Premier League soccer membership Chelsea and the Cadillac Method 1 racing workforce.

Jerry Buss bought the Lakers for $67.5 million in 1979, reworking them into one of many world's most recognizable sports activities franchises. After his dying , possession handed to his household, together with kids Jeanie and Jim, the latter of which left the workforce in 2017 after appearing as the chief vice chairman of basketball operations.

For the reason that household's acquisition, the Lakers have a 2236-1467 report and have gained 11 NBA Titles with groups which have featured a few of the league's most iconic gamers like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James.

Over that point span, the Lakers have shelled out quite a few massive participant contracts, which embrace multi-year offers for Bryant, O'Neal, James, Anthony Davis and lots of extra.

Equally, underneath Walter's tenure as proprietor, the Dodgers have entered quite a few high-dollar offers, most notably inking Japanese celebrity Shohei Ohtani to a record-breaking $700 million contract in 2023.

Johnson, who beforehand owned a part of the Lakers and can be a part of the Dodgers' possession workforce, took to X to supply his ideas on the blockbuster deal.

"I simply talked to my sister Jeanie Buss to inform her congratulations, and that I am so joyful for her and household. I advised her that her dad Dr. Buss could be very pleased with her," his publish stated.

"Mark Walter is your best option and would be the finest caretaker of the Laker model. The proof is within the pudding on what he is been in a position to accomplish with the LA Dodgers," stated one other publish.

That is the second occasion through which the Lakers have shocked the sporting world in a six-month span, after they acquired celebrity guard Luka Dončić from the Dallas Mavericks in some of the beautiful trades in NBA historical past.

Extra from CBS Information

Austin Turner

Austin Turner is an online producer at CBS Los Angeles. An Inland Empire native, Austin earned a level in journalism from San Jose State College in 2020. Earlier than becoming a member of CBS Information in 2025, he labored at KTLA, the San Jose Mercury Information, the Sedona Crimson Rock Information and varied different shops as a contract sports activities reporter.