In stunning news, the Los Angeles Lakers are being sold. The Buss family is entering into an agreement with Mark Walter for an evaluation of $10 billion, marking the largest sale of a sports team in history.
Walter, 65, is the CEO and managing partner of Guggenheim Partners, an investment and advisory firm that manages over $349 billion in assets. He is also the chairman and primary owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a position he has held since 2012. Walter also owns stakes in an F1 racing team, Chelsea of the English Premier League and the Los Angeles Sparks. He currently holds a 26% stake in the Lakers, which he purchased from Phil Anschutz in 2021.
The Lakers have been owned by the Buss family since Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979 for $67.5 million in a deal that also included the L.A. Kings and the Great Western Forum. The team has won an NBA most 11 NBA Championships since 1980.
However since his passing in 2013 at the age of 80, the team has was passed on to his children. Two of them, Jim and, most recently, Jeanie have each taken turn in the captain’s seat and displayed their respective brands of incompetency in running the team into the ground. Although the team did win the championship in the NBA Bubble in 2020, the franchise has fallen away from the standards that helped them raised the other 16 titles.
The Buss family will maintain a stake of approximately 15% of the team for some time. Jeanie Buss will continue to operate as the team’s governor, a role she has served in since 2013.
