Kushner & Iger’s $12.5B Lakers Deal, Grok 4.6 Launches, Anthropic’s Watermarking Move | Diet TBPN

**John Coogan** (4:43)
You're watching TBPN.

**Jordi Hays** (4:45)
Today is Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 We are live from the TBPN Ultradome, the Temple of Technology, the fortress of finance, the capital of capital.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:54)
That's right.

**Jordi Hays** (4:55)
We're going to 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.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:21)
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. Eternal is such a powerful statement and 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.

**Jordi Hays** (5:55)
Yeah. Well, we have Darren Rovel coming back on the show to discuss it at 1130 Let me take you through.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:02)
Yeah, and I figured out how to put on a suit.

**Jordi Hays** (6:04)
Yeah. Doesn't he look great? Look at this guy. It's incredible. I cleaned it up. Yeah, I cleaned it up. Super clean, looking amazing.
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:13)
Finally, truth be told, when we started the show, we started hitting the gym.

**John Coogan** (6:21)
We did a little bulking season.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:22)
It was bulking season. And I added some weight and I basically over the last-

**Jordi Hays** (6:26)
You added 45 pounds of lean muscle. You don't need to undersell it, Jordi. And you lost 20 pounds of fat.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:32)
I added a little weight and I basically grew out of my suit slowly, about two pounds a month for 18 months.

**Jordi Hays** (6:41)
It went exponential.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:43)
It was a fast take off. It became extremely uncomfortable to sit here, even though all these suits-

**Jordi Hays** (6:47)
Suits are beautiful.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:49)
That we had gotten made.

**Jordi Hays** (6:50)
But they had gotten a little tight.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:52)
I'm going to have to save them for when I'm an elderly man.

**Jordi Hays** (6:54)
Yeah, maybe.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:55)
Because at some point we'll shed the muscle.

**Jordi Hays** (6:58)
Yeah, cutting season is coming.

**SPEAKER_3** (6:59)
We'll be lean maxing.

**Jordi Hays** (7:00)
Summers only.

**SPEAKER_3** (7:01)
Cutting season is coming.

**Jordi Hays** (7:02)
Nine months away.

**SPEAKER_3** (7:03)
In 40 years. In 40 years.

**Jordi Hays** (7:06)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (7:07)
But it's good to be back.

**Jordi Hays** (7:08)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (7:08)
It's good to be back.

**Jordi Hays** (7:09)
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 businessmen, 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 businessmen coming in from out of town.

**SPEAKER_3** (8:12)
The sellers under federal investigation.

**Jordi Hays** (8:15)
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 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 three 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.

**SPEAKER_3** (8:59)
Capital allocator, bit of a bad boy.