Stock Markets Beware: AI Funding Plans Have -2-

Madison Square Garden Sports is attracting attention after reports that an investor group was bidding a record $12.5 billion to take a majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, a rival to its own NBA champion team the New York Knicks. MSG Sports is owned by billionaire James Dolan, who has resisted a sale of his teams.

-- MSG Sports stock is up 60% this year, a rally driven by rising NBA team valuations. MSG Sports plans to create separate companies for the Knicks and its NHL franchise, the New York Rangers, potentially allowing a future sale of all or part of the teams.

-- A team sale is unlikely given the well-known objections of CEO Dolan, whose family controls the company through supervoting stock. MSG Sports has a market value of around $10 billion. It trades below the estimated value of the Knicks and Rangers because of the Dolans' opposition to a sale.

-- Some analysts estimate the teams' asset value at about $13 billion to $14 billion, including about $10 billion for the Knicks and the rest for the Rangers. Those estimates are likely to go higher with the Lakers sale, since the Knicks are seen as a very comparable franchise in the largest market.

-- The Lakers investor group is led by former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner. They would be buying from Mark Walter, the billionaire CEO of Guggenheim Partners who bought the Lakers last June for a then-record $10 billion from longtime owners the Buss family, which kept a minority stake.

What's Next: MSG Sports reports its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings today, for the June quarter that includes the Knicks' championship run, and investors are eager to hear from management. Wall Street expects adjusted earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $228 million, according to FactSet.

-- Janet H. Cho and Andrew Bary

-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 13, 2026 07:11 ET (11:11 GMT)