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Los Angeles Lakers Sold for $10 Billion in Richest Deal in Sports History

Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, who also owns Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, is acquiring the storied NBA team in a move that makes it the world’s most valuable sports franchise

Key Points

The NBA’s most glamorous franchise is changing hands—and becoming the world’s most valuable sports team in the process.

Jeanie Buss and her family, who have owned the Los Angeles Lakers since Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979, on Wednesday agreed to sell majority control of the storied team to Mark Walter, the sports investor and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, at a valuation of $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal.

That makes the Lakers the most valuable franchise in professional sports history, surpassing the Boston Celtics, their rival that sold for $6.1 billion earlier this year.

Walter, who is also part of the ownership group of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, has been a part of the Lakers since 2021, when he purchased a 27% minority stake in the franchise. He is also a co-owner of Chelsea in the English Premier League, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, and the newly formed Cadillac Formula One team.

The sale marks the end of nearly a half-century of Lakers control by a family that has become synonymous with Los Angeles sports and the glitz of professional basketball.

The deal also comes at a time of skyrocketing valuations in professional basketball, which haven’t come back to earth since the league announced a media-rights deal last year worth $77 billion. When the Celtics sold in March, the $6.1 billion valuation exceeded the previous record valuation for a sports team set by the $6.05 billion sale of the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2023.

Since Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers for $67.5 million in 1979, the team transformed from a franchise uprooted from Minnesota into one of the winningest and most valuable sports properties in the world. The Buss family oversaw the creation of “Showtime” and presided over the NBA’s last three-peat. A-listers like Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio have become fixtures at their games.

They have won 11 championships since 1980, and their rosters have boasted many of basketball’s brightest stars. Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James have all worn the Lakers’ purple and gold.

After Jerry Buss died in 2013, his daughter, Jeanie Buss, took control of the team, and the Lakers won the most recent of their championships in 2020.

This season, the Lakers again added to their legacy when they made a shocking trade for Luka Doncic, a perennial MVP candidate to pair with LeBron James.

Walter’s own approach to his existing sports investments is similar. As the head of the Dodgers’ ownership group, Walter hasn’t been shy about pouring money into the club to attract baseball’s biggest names—in true Lakers fashion. In 2012, he led a group that bought the Dodgers for $2 billion. Since then, he has kept reaching into his deep pockets to build them into Major League Baseball’s most powerful franchise.

That includes acquiring the sport’s best player, Shohei Ohtani, who signed before last season for a then-record $700 million. His presence has turned the Dodgers, fittingly, into the closest thing baseball has ever seen to the Showtime Lakers, helping the franchise generate never-before-seen revenues for a MLB franchise.

The Dodgers have ranked at or near the top of MLB in payroll ever since Walter took control, winning four National League pennants and two World Series championships in 2020 and 2024.

But in the NBA, Walter will face stiff financial competition from across town, where Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, one of the richest men in the world, has built a shimmering new arena for his team. Ballmer bought the Clippers in 2014 for $2 billion, a record price at the time that now looks like a bargain.

The stunning deal comes on the eve of a closeout game in the NBA Finals, which is familiar territory for the Lakers. The Celtics have 18 championships to the 17 of the Lakers, including the titles they won in Minneapolis. But now the Lakers have bragging rights over the Celtics in at least one way: they are valued at nearly $4 billion more than their rivals.

“Just like I thought,” Lakers legend Magic Johnson posted on X. “When the Celtics sold for $6B, I knew the Lakers were worth $10B!”

‘Sunbelt’ countries from India to Mexico tipped to overtake in clean industry development

Band of emerging economies leveraging projects using cheap Chinese technology, report says

An “industrial sunbelt” made up of countries around the globe from India to Mexico is tipped to overtake the US and Europe for green-powered industry, according to research on the investment pipeline by a business advocacy group.

More than half of the proposed investment in new industrial projects was located across a band of emerging economies, found the report from the Mission Possible Partnership, a non-profit organisation focused on industry.

The report calculated that 59 per cent of the $1.6tn pipeline of global clean industrial projects that had been announced — but not yet financed — was based in the “sunbelt” countries.

China has dominated clean industry investment to date, accounting for a quarter of existing projects in sectors such as green ammonia and hydrogen, followed by a 22 per cent share in the US and 14 per cent in the EU, based on data from the Global Project Tracker, which tracks industrial projects.

But emerging economies that were increasingly industrialising were looking to tap into forecast demand for green products, such as cleaner materials, chemicals and fuels, said Lord Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of power and industrial companies, investors and environmental groups, which is involved in Mission Possible.

The so-called sunbelt countries had ideal conditions to tap into inexpensive renewable energy, particularly solar power, and could benefit from cheap Chinese panels, batteries, electrolysers and other green technologies, he said.

“The sunbelt has an easier path to decarbonisation,” Turner added. “You could have huge solar and wind developments in Namibia or in Morocco using Chinese wind turbines and China’s solar [photovoltaic panels].”

Projects tracked span sectors that are highly polluting, including aluminium, chemicals, cement, aviation and steel. They include a plant in Andhra Pradesh in India, for example, that aims to have the capacity to produce 1mn tonnes of green ammonia annually, with a long-term goal of 5mn tonnes a year by 2030. The project had reached the final investment decision stage last year and was expected to be complete in 2026.

But many projects are taking far longer to be developed. The report found 826 commercial-scale clean industrial plants were proposed in 69 countries. Of all the projects, just 69 were operational and 65 had secured financing, with eight reaching a final investment decision in the past six months. The remaining 692 projects were announced but not financed.  

Emerging economies have long complained they struggle to attract green finance, as investors shun developing countries for western projects perceived to be a safer bet.

Development banks, non-profits and countries have increasingly focused on how to reduce the risk of investing in such economies.

Last week, the $12.5bn Climate Investment Fund announced seven countries. including Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey, had been chosen to take part in an initiative aimed at tackling greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industry.

Solar bankruptcies mount as Congress slashes green energy funds

Republicans have been swiftly dismantling renewable energy investment since retaking the upper house

The US clean energy sector is facing a wave of collapses as Congress weighs a spending bill that would gut clean energy tax credits that have kept the industry afloat.

Two major companies, residential solar provider Sunnova and financing firm Mosaic, filed for bankruptcy this month, with Sunnova citing “uncertainty over the nation’s commitment” to solar power as a factor in its failure. The two companies are among the largest casualties in the sector since Donald Trump took office.

Reality is sinking in for an industry that hoped the robust presence of clean energy projects in Republican areas would save it from cuts. But in the months since Republicans retook Congress and the White House, they have moved swiftly to dismantle Biden-era investment in renewable energy sources.

Bankruptcies could also present a challenge for a Trump administration that says it will prioritise lowering energy costs and supporting job creation.

“It’s not final but it looks very negative,” said Carter Atlamazoglou, managing director for FTI Consulting who focuses on renewable energy, referring to the Senate’s latest draft of the tax bill. “You’re dealing with a lot of major uncertainty, which makes anyone considering residential solar — from homeowners to financiers — basically waiting to see what is going to happen here.”

Meanwhile, shares of solar companies have plummeted in recent days as the Senate version of the tax bill has echoed the House’s hard line on renewables, dashing investor hopes for a more moderate stance. Several solar stocks have suffered double-digit declines.

Renewable energy companies were already struggling to navigate high interest rates and the higher cost of capital over the past year, and the recent draft legislation has only exacerbated the sector’s financial strain.

“Firms are under liquidity pressure and we’re seeing real distress in the industry,” Atlamazoglou added. “Things are coming to a head.”

There have been nine big clean energy bankruptcies this year, with corporate failures on track to outpace the 16 that filed in the sector last year, according to BankruptcyData.

Solar business leaders had hoped that after weeks of lobbying, the upper house would water down some of the sweeping cuts the House of Representatives made to incentives for homeowners and residential solar companies in the so-called “big, beautiful bill”.

While Senators on Monday pushed back the timeline for some tax credits to be scrapped, business leaders say the changes will still continue the trend of mass liquidations and lay-offs.

“There’s going to be a 50 to 60 per cent downturn in demand. That will wreak havoc on a lot of these solar companies,” said Ara Agopian, chief executive of Solar Insure.

“Many of them will shut their doors as they can’t stay in business without the tax credit.”

Despite being disappointed by the Senate’s bill text, industry leaders are hoping to stave off bankruptcies by pointing to the economic impact the cuts would cause.

“We are in a fight for our lives,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association at a rally in Washington on Tuesday. “The bill does not achieve American energy dominance . . . In the residential solar industry alone, 1,500 small businesses and over 250,000 jobs are at risk.”

“We’re looking at a six-month cliff and thousands of businesses having to completely remake their business models in the space of mere months,” said Dan Conant, chief executive of Solar Holler, a West Virginia-based installation company. “It’s just impossible to do.”

Analysts said a market retreat from solar was likely to continue after investors were caught off guard by the Senate’s decision to echo the House’s hard line.

Since the text’s release, shares of Sunrun, a solar leasing company, lost 36 per cent; Enphase Energy, which makes technology for solar power systems, batteries and electric vehicles, fell 21 per cent; while shares in First Solar, a panel manufacturer, fell 19 per cent. SolarEdge, a manufacturer of technologies that boost panel performance, lost 30 per cent.

“There was a widespread street expectation for the policy to be eased in the senate draft,” said Julien Dumoulin-Smith, a clean energy analyst at Jefferies.

“If [residential solar] has been excluded here, the odds of it being reintroduced in subsequent iterations certainly diminishes. That’s what you’re seeing reflected in such a sharp moves.”

Bondholders’ rescue plan for utility hinges on waivers from regulations and fines, documents show

Thames Water’s creditors, who are providing a £5bn backup rescue of the utility, are demanding waivers that would exempt the UK’s largest water company from key environmental laws.

The lenders are calling on the government and regulator Ofwat to grant licence changes and even emergency legislation to shield Thames Water from laws and regulations, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

“It is a core requirement of the creditors that the government demonstrates its commitment to creating the conditions for delivery of the transformation and turnaround plan by providing clear and unambiguous direction to implement the above detailed compliance derogations and enforcement adjustments,” the document reads.

The senior creditors’ plan is the only one on the table after US private equity firm KKR this month walked away from its own bid to rescue Thames Water. Ofwat is currently assessing the plan by the creditor group, which comprises more than 100 financial institutions that are owed £13bn by the utility. The group has already agreed a £3bn emergency loan to the beleaguered water company, which is trying to avoid renationalisation as it struggles with a near-£20bn debt mountain.

These lenders, which include the hedge funds Elliott Management and Silver Point, are now proposing to inject £3bn of equity into Thames Water, extend £2bn of fresh debt, and take a 20 per cent writedown on the value of their existing loans in exchange for taking formal control of the utility.

The creditors assess that Thames Water has a “clear deep-rooted environmental non-compliance gap” that will expose it to more legal action and regulatory investigations, reads the document sent to government and regulators.

They also want fines removed, including those already imposed — such as a £104mn penalty for failing to manage its sewage treatment works adequately, as well as an £18.2mn fine for paying “excessive” dividends. 

The creditors are also asking for changes to Thames Water’s licence, which would provide added protection against Ofwat fines and penalties and would also allow them to raise prices at any time before 2030.

The demands will pile pressure on Steve Reed, the environment secretary, who has pledged to punish water companies for their “disgraceful behaviour” on sewage pollution but is determined to avoid renationalising Thames Water under its special administration regime, or SAR. 

The government said: “The company is stable and government is carefully monitoring the situation. We expect the company to continue to meet its obligations to both customers and the environment.”

One person familiar with the creditors’ position acknowledged that regulatory relief was an “unprecedented ask” but said that the utility was in an “unprecedented position”.

Another said that they believed their requests could be met without changes to the law but had outlined emergency legislation as an option to set out the full “landscape” to regulators. The person added that their proposal had received a “positive” reaction from officials.

A spokesperson for the creditors said: “Broad regulatory support is needed to unlock a market-led solution for Thames Water that will secure billions of pounds in fresh investment for its ageing network.”

The creditor plan is facing mounting opposition from rival creditors and environmentalists, who are calling for the company to be temporarily renationalised. 

Charlie Maynard, the Liberal Democrat MP who mounted a legal challenge to the initial £3bn loan, is seeking a further appeal to the Supreme Court, which could be heard in the early autumn.

Thames Water said: “In order to be investable, we and prospective investors would need to engage in discussions with our regulators. We remain focused on securing a market-led solution to restoring Thames Water to financial health”.

Ofwat said: “We have commenced a thorough review of the submission from the group of senior creditors. Our focus is on assessing whether the plans are realistic, deliverable and will bring substantial benefits for customers and the environment.”

Authorities bet ‘low-altitude economy’ will be next driver of growth

In a school district in Shenzhen, would-be truants dodge surveillance drones that patrol the streets. At a nearby park, office workers pick up takeaway delivered by drones from food delivery app Meituan.

Elsewhere in southern China’s technology hub, unmanned aircraft transport vials of blood between hospitals, help police departments with crowd control and extinguish blazes for firefighters.

For years, the government has provided strong support for drone production in the form of tax relief, subsidies and industrial parks, said multiple companies and analysts. Now, it is trying to apply them in other sectors of the economy and make drones a new driver of growth.

The drone network in Shenzhen, which authorities have called a “sky city”, is at the heart of China’s efforts to grow its so-called low-altitude economy, referring to activity in airspace less than 1,000 metres above ground. For comparison, the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is 828 metres tall.

While the government and military have so far driven demand, drone makers are now seeking commercial customers.

“The low-altitude economy has gradually moved from a concept to a mature application stage,” said Li Zhizhao, marketing director at Harwar, which develops drones used in schools and is also making aircraft to fight fires and inspect roads. “It’s demonstrating huge market potential.”

China dominates the production of commercial drones, accounting for 70-80 per cent of global supply, according to analytics provider Drone Industry Insights. Shenzhen is home to DJI, the world’s largest commercial drone maker by sales, as well as thousands of parts suppliers, a clustering that has made Chinese drones cheap and efficient to produce, said Li.

The country also has a stranglehold on research and development, accounting for 79 per cent of approved drone patents globally last year, according to a report by London-based law firm Mathys & Squire. DJI alone filed 64 patents among the 7,890 total.

“That’s a huge figure,” said Andrew White, a partner at Mathys & Squire. It “really goes to demonstrate the amount of innovation that’s going on by Chinese entities in this sector”.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China expects the market size of the low-altitude economy, which includes other innovations such as flying cars, to grow fivefold to Rmb3.5tn ($490bn) by 2035. In a sign of China’s ambitions for the sector, the state planner last year established the Low-Altitude Economy Development Division, a rare example of a department dedicated to developing a specific industry.

There were nearly 2.2mn drones registered with the CAAC at the end of last year, according to the latest available figures.

About a third of the country’s industrial drones are used in agriculture or forestry, while more than a fifth are used for geographical surveys. The next biggest uses are patrols, security monitoring, firefighting and disaster relief, according to 2022 figures from analytics provider Guanyan Tianxia Data Center.

Wu Yudong, operations chief at agricultural drone maker JIS, said unmanned aircraft could reduce the time needed to spray pesticides or fertilisers to less than a minute a mu, a Chinese unit equivalent to about a sixth of an acre. Using traditional methods, that might take about half an hour, he said.

But JIS’s sales of training drones, introduced less than a year ago to teach people from across different industries to pilot the devices, now outstrip those of its core agricultural products. “With the country promoting low-altitude airspace . . . lots of people want to enter this industry,” said Wu.

Meituan, China’s largest food delivery platform, in April received nationwide approval to have its drones deliver takeaways to kiosks installed throughout cities. Rivals JD.com and Ele.me have also begun using drones on some delivery routes.

Although many manufacturers are adapting technology for civilian use, the military remains their primary customers, said a number of companies at the Unmanned Aerial Systems Expo, China’s largest commercial drone fair, last month.

The National University of Defense Technology accounted for 73 drone patents in the past two years, according to the Mathys & Squire report, although the number of applications for military technology is likely to be higher because national security-related patents are not made public, said White.

Li Sijia, a project manager at Huahang High-Tech Beijing Technology, which sells 90 per cent of its carbon-fibre body drones to military clients, said it was hoping to expand its civilian market, but the hefty price tags of its products and China’s strict export controls were limiting the company’s potential reach.

“Why would a company like us, that does military-use products, attend a civil drone fair? The first reason is for survival,” he said, adding that profits were “not very high”, given intense competition in the industry. “The second reason is that we want to bring these products to the civilian market.”