Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner buy Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation, source says

BREAKING: Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner are buying the Los Angeles Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation, acquiring Mark Walter's majority stake less than a year after he bought the team, a source says.

The Lakers just sold for twelve and a half billion dollars. Again.

Mark Walter bought control of the team in October at a ten billion valuation. Less than a year later he's flipped his majority stake to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner, and pocketed a two and a half billion dollar markup on paper. Not a bad season for a man who never coached a game.

Iger just wrapped twenty years running Disney, Kushner runs Thrive Capital, and the two are already business partners. They called themselves stewards of one of the most iconic franchises in sports. Meanwhile Walter's side of the story is messier, with reports of an SEC investigation into his insurance companies and Guggenheim, which might explain why the crown jewel went so fast.

Every NBA sale needs league approval, and that vote is the real finish line. NBA board approves the Iger and Kushner deal by the end of September.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at cnbc.com