who owns the los angeles lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are currently majority-owned by billionaire investor Mark Walter , with longtime team executive Jeanie Buss remaining as team governor and in charge of day-to-day operations.

Who Owns the Los Angeles Lakers Now?

As of late 2025, the NBA approved Mark Walter’s purchase of a controlling (majority) stake in the Los Angeles Lakers from the Buss family, in a deal valuing the franchise at about $10 billion. Jeanie Buss, whose family had controlled the Lakers since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, still keeps a significant minority stake and continues as governor for at least five years, overseeing basketball and business operations.

Quick Scoop on the Ownership Structure

• Mark Walter is the majority owner through his investment group TWG Global, giving him primary financial control of the franchise.

• Jeanie Buss remains the public face and top decision-maker on basketball matters as team governor, satisfying NBA rules that the governor must hold a minimum ownership stake.

• The Buss family no longer holds a controlling interest, ending an era of nearly five decades of family control, but they are still closely tied to the team through Jeanie’s role and remaining shares.

Who Is Mark Walter?

• Mark Walter is a billionaire businessman and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a large financial services firm managing hundreds of billions in assets.

• His TWG Global group also holds controlling interests in the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, and motor racing ventures including the Cadillac Formula 1 team.

• He is known for keeping a low profile publicly while investing heavily in analytics, infrastructure, and winning-focused operations with his sports properties.

What About Jeanie Buss?

• Jeanie Buss took over as controlling owner and governor of the Lakers after her father Jerry Buss’s passing, formalizing her leadership role around 2017.

• Under the new arrangement, she remains governor and is expected to stay in that role “for the foreseeable future,” meaning she will continue to shape the franchise’s culture and strategic direction.

• Her continued presence is framed as a way to preserve the Buss legacy and maintain continuity for fans, even as majority ownership shifts to Walter.

Why This Is a Big Deal (Latest News & Trend Context)

• The Lakers sale set a record valuation of about $10 billion, making it one of the most expensive transactions in sports history and highlighting the franchise’s global brand power.

• Commentators and analysts have suggested the move could bring deeper pockets, more advanced analytics, and a more corporate-style front office to a team long run like a family business.

• At the same time, keeping Jeanie Buss in charge on the basketball side is seen as a bridge between the Showtime-and-beyond legacy and a new era of big-money, multi-club ownership.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.