Did business titans Bob Iger and Josh Kushner

Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger, profitable businessmen by any measure, paid $12.5 billion for the Lakers, simply the very best price ever for a sports activities franchise.

It was a uncommon probability to purchase an iconic sports activities model, and by all accounts, timing was the whole lot.

The monumental sale price has implications for the remaining of the NBA and raises a basic query: Did Kushner and Iger get a great deal or did they overpay?

Business titan Mark Walter owned the NBA franchise for only a yr. Federal regulators are investigating Walter’s financial empire, and he reportedly felt compelled to promote as he strikes billions to help unravel undisclosed related-party loans from two of his insurance coverage corporations to multinational holding company TWG Global — an abbreviation for The Walter Group, where he serves as chief govt.

Before many realized Walter could be in promoting the workforce rapidly, Kushner and Iger, already pining for an NBA franchise, jumped at the chance.

The haste of the transaction would appear to have given the consumers superior leverage, yet Walter negotiated a 25% increase on the $10 billion he spent on the workforce last October.

Some specialists argue the Lakers are value every penny. A deep dive into the market for legacy sports activities franchises signifies to Sports Value Consulting co-founder and chief govt Michael Rapkoch that the investment is sound.

“How often do the Lakers come up for sale? Why wouldn’t someone pay that amount if they were able?” Rapkoch said. “Are you going to be the person who says at a cocktail party that you could have bought the team but turned it down because you wouldn’t pay more than $11 billion? This is likely your one and only chance. It’s do it or lose it.”

Twelve years in the past, Steve Ballmer purchased the Clippers for $2 billion and admitted he willingly overpaid. In 2025, the Boston Celtics — just like the Lakers, an illustrious legacy franchise — have been offered for $6.1 billion, which intently matched Forbes market estimates.

Less than a yr later, the Lakers offered for more than twice that quantity. Some specialists have been astonished by the price tag.

“You’ve got to buy things with some discipline based on the revenue potential, the cost takeouts, what does the P&L [Profit and Loss] look like,” bestselling business writer William D. Cohan said on a podcast. “You’ve got to believe that Iger and Kushner got caught up in wanting to own this thing.

“As usual with these kind of assets, you have to buy it smart, buy it right or else you overpay. If you get into ‘deal heat,’ which I have a feeling Bob Iger did … it’s hard to get a return when you way overpay.”

Premium sports activities franchises have spiked in worth so quickly that sticker shock is nil. Shortly after Walter bought the Lakers, sports activities business web site Sportico decided that the average NBA workforce was value $5.51 billion, a 20% increase in one yr and a 113% surge since 2022.

The Golden State Warriors ranked first at $11.33 billion, the Lakers have been second at $10 billion — reflecting what Walter paid for the workforce — and the Memphis Grizzlies ranked last at $4 billion. Collectively, the 30 NBA franchises have been value $165 billion.

Record-breaking purchases of NBA, NFL and MLB groups are often initially thought of overpays, yet soon are deemed bargains.

Ballmer, like Iger, had come up short in earlier bids for groups, and wasn’t going to let it occur again with the Clippers. He acknowledged succumbing to the “deal heat” Cohan talked about, but never regretted it. Forbes estimates the Clippers are value $7.5 billion today.

“I was all in, but then it got into the bid process. And I was still all in, and I just said, ‘I’m gonna get this team,’” Ballmer said on a podcast in 2023. “People thought I way overpaid, but I got the team.”

Experts say the worth of top-tier sports activities franchises entails three elements that differ from most other corporations: assured income through long-term league media rights offers; regional and global branding that fuels regular ancillary income from sponsorships and workforce merchandise; and excessive shortage that fosters deep fan allegiances.

Major franchises — the Lakers, Dodgers, Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, to identify a few — don’t change palms often. Kushner and Iger have been mired in a prolonged battle to gain approval for an NBA growth franchise Las Vegas and clearly seen the Lakers as a better alternative.

Recently accepted NBA media rights offers are value $6.9 billion a yr from 2025 through 2036. They embrace the renewal of the league’s partnership with Disney — which owns ESPN — and new agreements with NBCUniversal and Amazon under which ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video will telecast video games.

Some financial specialists contemplate the Lakers a less dangerous investment than, say, OpenAI, into which Kushner invested more than $2.1 billion through his enterprise capital firm, Thrive Capital. That investment and others in the AI and tech sectors have paid off handsomely, but pivoting to a legacy NBA workforce with a locked-in elevated financial ground might be prudent. Iger just stepped down after two runs heading the Walt Disney Co.

“The NBA has more secured, annual retention revenue than most other investments,” Rapkoch said. “You are buying into something stable. In 15 to 20 years the Lakers are going to be here. Will an AI company be here? Maybe so. But lots of companies have come and gone. We know with a high level of certainty the Lakers will be here.”

Some who consider Kushner and Iger received caught up in the second and overpaid level to the bidding struggle with Comcast for twenty first Century Fox that Iger gained for Disney in 2019. The price escalated from $54 billion to $72 billion and Disney was left with a debt load of $25 billion and combined returns.

Iger rejected the notion that he skilled “buyer’s remorse,” sustaining on a November 2024 call with analysts that the deal was made “through the lens of streaming.” He asserted that Disney wouldn’t have efficiently launched and scaled Disney+ without Fox’s immense content catalog, which included the “Avatar” franchise, “The Simpsons,” FX and National Geographic.

NBA franchise income shouldn’t be as diversified as Disney‘s, yet the league generated $12.25 billion in revenue — an average of $408 million per team — during the 2024-25 season, including events such as concerts at arenas owned or operated by teams. These earnings ranged from the Warriors’ $833 million to the Grizzlies’ $301 million.

But NBA groups also wouldn’t have some of the business challenges film studios face in the streaming period.

Rapkoch identified that it’s unclear exactly how a lot of the Lakers can be owned by Kushner and Iger. Walter’s majority possession share has not been publicly divulged. It has been widely reported that among minority homeowners, the Buss household owns 17.8%, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong 4% and Edward P. Roski Jr. 3%.

Jeanie Buss, the current governor of the Lakers and one of six kids of the late longtime proprietor Jerry Buss, is preventing with her siblings, who voted to promote the household’s remaining stake to Iger and Kushner. Buss said any such vote is void because the sale can’t be accomplished without her approval.

Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire and proprietor of The Times, said through his attorney that he’s not in promoting his stake, which he bought from Magic Johnson in 2010 for an undisclosed quantity.

What is it value today? Four % of $12.5 billion is $500 million. Roski, whose stake is value $375 million, has not disclosed his intentions.

Whatever the minority homeowners resolve shouldn’t influence the sale of Walter’s majority stake, said Rapkoch, whose firm has supplied valuation companies and operational consulting to more than 50 skilled sports activities franchises. Assuming they get the blessing of the NBA board of governors, Iger and Kushner will own the Lakers.

“Bob and Josh are going to do an amazing job,” Rapkoch said. “They know L.A., and they will bring a fresh look to the franchise.”