The Buss Family Trust has decided to sell its remaining 17.8% stake to the new majority ownership group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, sources confirmed Monday. The move, which utilizes a tag-along provision from last week’s agreement valuing the franchise at $12.5 billion, will leave the family with zero ownership once the deal closes and receives NBA approval.
“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the family said in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles; but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”
The path to zero ownership unfolded in two rapid, high-value transactions over roughly 14 months.
In June 2025, the six Buss siblings—Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse—voted to sell the family’s controlling interest to Mark Walter (already a minority owner via a 2021 purchase) at a then-record $10 billion valuation. The family retained a minority stake of approximately 17.8–18%, enough for Jeanie Buss to remain governor under NBA rules requiring at least 15% ownership for the role. That sale closed in late October 2025 after unanimous NBA Board of Governors approval. Jeanie was guaranteed the governorship for at least five years; her siblings were later removed from front-office roles.
Less than a year later, Walter agreed to sell his controlling stake to Kushner (founder of Thrive Capital) and Iger (former Disney CEO) at a $12.5 billion valuation—a $2.5 billion jump. That deal included tag-along rights allowing minority owners to sell their shares on the same terms. The Buss trust exercised those rights after a vote requiring at least four of the six siblings’ approval. The trustees will now execute the sale.
Kushner and Iger are acquiring roughly 65% from Walter’s group. Adding the Buss shares would push their combined ownership to approximately 83%. The full transaction still requires NBA Board of Governors approval; the next meetings are scheduled for mid-September in New York. Kushner must also divest limited equity he holds in the Miami Heat before the process advances.
Once completed, Jeanie Buss will fall below the 15% threshold and will no longer be eligible to serve as governor. She has held the role since 2013, following the death of her father, Dr. Jerry Buss.
Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers (along with the NHL’s Kings and the Forum) in a $67.5 million deal in 1979. Under his leadership and later that of his children, the franchise became synonymous with Showtime, championships, and global star power. The family era produced 11 NBA titles and featured Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James among others.
After Jerry Buss died in 2013, control passed into a trust structured so that the six children shared the family’s roughly 66% stake. Jeanie emerged as the public face and governor. Internal family tensions periodically surfaced, including a failed 2017 effort by some siblings to remove her from leadership. Similar friction reportedly accompanied the 2025 sale to Walter, with some siblings later expressing that they felt the process was rushed or that they had been pressured.
Walter’s tenure as majority owner proved exceptionally short. The quick flip to Kushner and Iger, combined with reported federal investigations involving other companies tied to Walter, added another layer of turbulence to an already accelerated ownership transition.
The Lakers will move fully into the hands of institutional and high-profile private capital after nearly five decades as a family-run enterprise. The new group has publicly expressed respect for the Buss legacy and previously indicated an intent to honor Jeanie’s prior governorship arrangement—though that commitment is now effectively overtaken by the family’s decision to sell the remaining shares.
For Lakers fans, the change closes a chapter that defined the franchise’s modern identity. The Buss family transformed a relocated Minneapolis team into a cultural and basketball powerhouse. Their complete exit, executed at successive record valuations, also reflects the explosive rise in franchise values across professional sports and the practical limits of multi-generational family ownership of a multi-billion-dollar asset.
The NBA still must formally approve the transactions. Until then, the paperwork remains unfinished. But the Buss family’s ownership of the Lakers—once 66%, then roughly 18%, and now headed to zero—is ending.
