Mark Walter took over the Los Angeles Lakers just 10 months ago for $10 billion. But then, on Wednesday, he made a $2.5B profit by selling the NBA franchise to a group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner. That $12.5B deal, finalized in 72 hours, raised questions about his stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers. Plus, there was already some buzz surrounding the MLB team’s future ever since their owner got involved in a federal probe. That is what Dave Roberts is addressing.

“I was shocked, like I think everyone else was,” the Dodgers manager said in his recent interview, per DodgersBeat on X. “That’s above all of our pay grades. But I know that he was excited to take on the Lakers, and so I was as surprised as everyone.”

The reporters even asked Roberts about the state of the Dodgers’ ownership and wondered whether there would be any changes to the franchise in the near future, to which he responded:

“I haven’t heard anything. So for me, it’s business as usual.”

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Walter previously had a 27% minority stake in the Lakers, and then he bought the franchise from the Buss family last summer. As of August 12, the $12.5 billion exchange is a record valuation for the NBA team. But Walter’s sudden exit has a broader financial backdrop. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been investigating parts of his business empire. It includes Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life & Annuity Co., along with Guggenheim Partners. According to the filings, the asset investment was close to $17 billion rather than the original reports stating just $1.4 billion. 

Meanwhile, Mark Walter’s private holding company, TWG Global, has approached multiple investment firms about raising cash to help pay down loans.

According to Bloomberg, the organization is also working on restructuring the loans while the probe continues.

With the ongoing investigation and Walter’s investment company taking huge steps, questions about his business continue to exist. In an interview with the LA Times, Dodgers’ president Stan Kasten assured that the Lakers’ sale had nothing to do with the federal investigation.

Currently, there are no reports of selling the Dodgers’ ownership either.  

“This is a Laker story, not really a Dodger story,” Stan Kasten firmly stated, and he reiterated that there are no changes for the Dodgers in this case. 

The same was reiterated by an anonymous source close to Walter:

“He owned them long before the Lakers and will own them long after.”

In 2012, Mark Walter bought the baseball team for $2.15 billion. The sports community was stunned. Mark Cuban even bowed out of the bidding, believing that the Dodgers were not even worth $1 billion, reported Bill Shaikin of LA Times. But Walter had his reasons.

“I think you have a few moments in life where you have the opportunity to own an asset and really be a custodian of something that should be multigenerational and iconic. I understand it’s a lot of money. But it’s not as if you can go buy another one tomorrow. … We hope we never, ever are going to sell it,” Walter noted back then.

After 14 years, the franchise is valued at almost $9B, per Sportico. They have 3 World Series rings from the last six seasons. And the ownership keeps spending aggressively to maintain their championship-caliber roster. Not just the roster, but also development, scouting, facilities, and infrastructure.

Right now, the Dodgers are atop the NL West with a 72-48 record. The LA side has recently recovered from a 7-game slide, and the team just had an incredible outing from returning starter Blake Snell on Tuesday. They are working towards winning the World Series for a third time in a row. Evidently, Dave Roberts and the entire team would rather focus on the games than any ownership debate at this moment.

By now, they are probably looking forward to having another celebratory parade with Dom Perignon. While the Dodgers won’t have the crossover marketing and advertising with the Lakers any longer, those few extra billion dollars will probably help them in their $415 million+ luxury tax payroll for this season.