Chelsea co-owner strikes stunning £7bn agreement as announcement due on mega-deal

Chelsea minority owner Mark Walter is said to be buying the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that would value the National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise at circa $10 billion (£7.45bn).

The move comes four years after fellow Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly and Walter acquired just over a quarter of the team from Philip Anschutz. Twenty per cent currently belongs to Walter, with Boehly having the rest and joining the Lakers’ board of directors.

As part of that deal, they reputedly received a right of first refusal for the majority share. The Buss Family Trusts own two-thirds of the team, with Jeanie Buss being the controlling owner.

A spokesperson for Walter’s company, TWG Global, has said to the BBC : “Mark Walter is entering into an agreement to acquire additional interests in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, of which he has been a stakeholder since 2021.”

ESPN reports that Buss is due to remain governor, running the team for the foreseeable future. To facilitate that, the family will retain a minority share of just over 15 per cent as part of the agreement they are entering into with Walter.

Controlling ownership has not changed outside of the Buss family since 1979. That is when Jerry Buss, father of Jeanie, purchased the franchise for an estimated $16 million (£12m).

Jeanie took over control of the team from her father following his death in 2013 on behalf of his six children. At least four of the six siblings have to vote in favour of a sale, as they reportedly did on Wednesday, with Jeanie voting for the move.

The former Lakers player, coach, president of basketball operations and minority owner Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson claims to have spoken to Buss since the development. “I just talked to my sister Jeanie Buss to tell her congratulations, and that I’m so happy for her and family,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“I told her that her dad Dr. Buss would be very proud of her for getting $10bn for the Lakers, the largest sports franchise sale in history!” A previous post of his reads: “I know that my sister Jeanie would have only considered selling the Lakers organization to someone she knows and trusts would carry on the Buss legacy, started by her father Dr. Buss.

“Now she can comfortably pass the baton to Mark Walter, with whom she has a real friendship and can trust. She’s witnessed him build a winning team with the Dodgers and knows that Mark will do right by the Lakers team, organization, and fans!

“Both are extremely intelligent, visionaries, great leaders, and have positively impacted the greater Los Angeles community! I love both my sister @JeanieBuss and my business partner Mark Walter.”

Walter has a controlling stake in the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Los Angeles Dodgers, which he co-owns with Boehly through their investment firm, Guggenheim Partners.

Johnson, though, is the face of and led the ownership group in 2012 during its $2bn (£1.5bn) takeover.