Kushner and Iger Buy The Lakers, Grok 4.6 Launch, NVIDIA Nemotron | Darren Rovell, Patrick Whitesell, Harjot Gill, Jeff Huber, Soren Monroe-Anderson & Shaun Maguire, Andrei Georgescu

**Jordi Hays** (0:00)
You're watching TBPN.

**John Coogan** (0:02)
Today is Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 We are live from the CBP and UltiDOM, the Temple of Technology, the Fortress of Finance, the capital of capital. That's right. I'll tell you about ramp.com. Time is money, save both. He's used corporate cards, bill pay, accounting, and a whole lot more, all in one place.
Some really interesting data out of Ramp. We'll go through the latest workings of R. Karazian over at the Ramp Economics Lab soon, but first we got to talk about Josh Kushner, Bob Iger. They bought the LA Lakers. They're buying the LA Lakers. He's done it again. They said he couldn't do it.

**Jordi Hays** (0:38)
In the sauna this morning, I was thinking about the name Thrive Eternal. I think it's one of the best names for a fund ever. Like eternal is such a powerful statement, it fits the strategy so well.
People have been talking about this this morning, but it feels like with all of the technology disruption happening, it just feels like these sports franchises could be more durable than many of the biggest companies in the world today.

**John Coogan** (1:12)
Yeah. Well, we have Darren Rovell coming back on the show to discuss it at 11.30. Let me take you through.

**Jordi Hays** (1:18)
Yeah. And I figured out how to put on a suit.

**John Coogan** (1:20)
Yeah. Doesn't he look great? Look at this guy. It's incredible.

**Jordi Hays** (1:24)
I cleaned it up.

**John Coogan** (1:25)
Yeah.

**Jordi Hays** (1:25)
I cleaned it up.

**John Coogan** (1:26)
Super clean. Looking amazing. Yeah.

**Jordi Hays** (1:30)
Finally. Truth be told, when we started the show, I went from... We started hitting the gym really hard.

**Jordi Hays** (1:38)
We did a little bulking season.

**John Coogan** (1:39)
It was bulking season.

**Jordi Hays** (1:39)
And I added some weight. And I basically over-

**John Coogan** (1:43)
You added 45 pounds of lean muscle. You don't need to undersell it, Jordi.

**Shaun Maguire** (1:47)
And you lost 20 pounds of fat.

**Jordi Hays** (1:49)
I added a little weight and I basically grew out of my suit slowly about two pounds a month for 18 months.

**John Coogan** (1:58)
It went exponential.

**Jordi Hays** (1:59)
And it became extremely uncomfortable to sit here, even though all these suits that we had gotten made.

**John Coogan** (2:07)
But they got a little tight.

**Jordi Hays** (2:08)
I'm going to have to save them for when I'm an elderly man. Because at some point, we'll shed the muscle.

**John Coogan** (2:15)
Cutting season is coming.

**Jordi Hays** (2:16)
We'll be lean maxing.

**John Coogan** (2:17)
Summer's only...

**Jordi Hays** (2:18)
Cutting season is coming.

**John Coogan** (2:19)
Nine months away.

**Jordi Hays** (2:20)
In 40 years. In 40 years.

**John Coogan** (2:22)
Yeah.

**Jordi Hays** (2:24)
But it's good to be back. It's good to be back.

**John Coogan** (2:26)
Yeah, looks good.
Let me take you through the story. So everyone has the facts straight about this incredible deal for the Los Angeles Lakers. The headline is the Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to American businessman Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record-breaking price of $12.5 billion. Multiple sources have told this to ESPN. So Kushner and Iger made the offer to Mark Walter, who only last year purchased a controlling interest in the Lakers from the Bus family at a then record valuation of roughly $10 billion.
Walter, the CEO and Chairman of holding company TWG Global, officially became the Lakers' majority owner last October. After the NBA unanimously approved the deal, the new sale will likewise require approval from the NBA's Board of Governors, which is scheduled to meet next month in New York. But looking at that picture, it seems like they've had this conversation with the relevant people. They're not some random businessman coming in from out of town.

**Patrick Whitesell** (3:28)
Who have you ever talked to?

**Jordi Hays** (3:29)
Under federal investigation?

**John Coogan** (3:31)
Yes, for some very complicated deals where some private credit transactions were put into an insurance firm that they own.
Those affiliated transactions, if you originate the deal and then you put it in your insurance companies, on your insurance company's books, you need to disclose this. Now, you can actually do this. Berkshire Hathaway, about 46 percent of their insurance assets are related party transactions. So there's a way to do it above board. The allegations are that he disclosed that only 3 percent of the insurance assets were related party affiliated transactions. But in fact, it was much higher when you considered some of the other assets that had made their way through a third party.