Report: Mark Walter tried to take out a loan against his Lakers stake
· Yahoo Sports
Ever since Mark Walter agreed to sell his majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger last week, some troubling details have been reported about his brief time as the team's majority owner that are calling into question his reasons for selling his stake.
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According to a newsletter by John Ourand, Walter tried to get the Lakers, as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers, another team he owns, out of their television deal with Los Angeles-area-based Spectrum SportsNet. The Lakers have a 20-year, $3 billion deal with the network that they entered into in 2012, and according to the report, Walter was perhaps looking for a lump sum of cash.
According to a recent report in the Financial Times by Eric Platt, Sun Yu, Oliver Barnes, James Fontanella-Khan and Lee Harris, Walter also looked to take out a loan against his stake in the Lakers in recent months. Those discussions reportedly took place until Walter agreed to sell his share of the team last week (h/t Silver Screen and Roll).
"Mark Walter held discussions with private investment giant Apollo Global Management about a multibillion-dollar loan against his Los Angeles Lakers stake, in a sign of the billionaire’s rush to raise cash this year.
"The talks took place throughout the summer and continued until former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner offered to buy Walter’s stake in the Lakers, according to people familiar with the matter."
Without a doubt, the Lakers' ownership situation is truly in flux. On Monday, the Buss family, whom Walter had bought his majority share from last year, voted to sell its remaining 17.8% share of the franchise to Kushner and Iger. The one member of the Buss family who is opposed to that transaction is Jeanie Buss, who serves as the franchise's governor.
When Walter first purchased his majority stake, an agreement was reached that would allow Buss to remain governor through 2030. She is reportedly open to looking for a way to hold the minimum 15% ownership required to retain her governor role, even if all five of her siblings still give up ownership.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Report: Mark Walter tried to take out a loan against his Lakers stake