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# Who pays $12.5B for basketball?
- URL: https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/who-pays-12-5b-for-basketball/
- Published: 2026-08-13T19:22:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-13T19:22:45.000Z
- Author: Jose Kont
- Tags: The Daily Dealflow

Hi, and welcome to a new edition of [The Daily Dealflow](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/tag/the-daily-dealflow/) — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley's garages to Buenos Aires' cafés. Let's dive in.

## 🏆 Deal of the Day

Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger have agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5B — the highest price ever paid for a U.S. professional sports franchise — [The Investor Society](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/josh-kushner-bob-iger-buy-los-angeles-lakers-for-record-12-billion/).

**Why This?** Marquee sports assets across the Americas are now priced like scarce infrastructure, and only a handful of buyers can still write the check.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-13-at-11.17.01---AM.png)

**Positive Context:**

- Secured media-rights revenue makes live sports one of the few content assets insulated from streaming fragmentation, which is exactly what a media operator like Iger is buying.
- The repricing is broad, not a one-off: the Hornets sold at $3B in 2023, the Celtics at $6.1B in 2025, and the Seahawks set an NFL record at $9.612B earlier this year.

**Yes, but:**

- Team revenue does not compound at the pace of sale prices; part of the $12.5B assumes real estate, global expansion and rights upside that may never arrive.
- Approval is not automatic — the NBA Board of Governors must sign off, and Kushner must divest his Miami Heat stake first, a secondary transaction that could delay closing.

**Zoom in:** Kushner and Iger were chasing an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas before pivoting and approaching Mark Walter with the offer on a Sunday.

**The comment:** Kushner and Iger said they are "deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers" in a joint statement to [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/%5F/id/49590362/josh-kushner-bob-iger-buy-lakers-12b?ref=theinvestorsociety.com). [theinvestorsociety](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/josh-kushner-bob-iger-buy-los-angeles-lakers-for-record-12-billion/)

## 💰 Venture Capital

Thrive Holdings (US) – $2B, growth round at a $12B valuation, OpenAI-backed holding company that buys traditional service businesses and runs AI as the operating layer, with SoftBank, D1 Capital and Altimeter participating – [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/13/top-tech-news-today-august-13-2026-anthropic-deepmind-google-lenovo-microsoft-spacexai-more/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Kesh (Brazil) – $110M (R$550M), equity plus financing for a proprietary FIDC backed by Grupo Leste, employee-credit platform that returns 100% of loan interest to borrowers as benefits – [The Investor Society](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/brazilian-fintech-kesh-raises-us-110m-to-return-100-of-loan-interest-as-employee-benefits/).

PointsKash (US) – $100M, strategic investment from Hawk Capital Investors, Scottsdale-based payments, loyalty-rewards and digital commerce platform – [FinSMEs](https://www.finsmes.com/2026/08/pointskash-receives-100m-investment-from-hawk-capital-investors.html?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

FAZ Cred (Brazil) – $14.8M (R$80M), receivables fund (FIDC) backed by asset manager Patrimonial, private payroll-deduction lender to healthcare and education workers, raised in 60 days – [The Investor Society](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/brazils-faz-cred-raises-r-80-million-in-60-days-to-expand-private-payroll-lending/).

Cognition (US) – early talks at a $40B+ valuation, AI coding agent (Devin) reportedly nearing a $1B annualized revenue run rate – [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/13/top-tech-news-today-august-13-2026-anthropic-deepmind-google-lenovo-microsoft-spacexai-more/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Reservoir (US) – $8M, Seed led by Asymmetric Capital Partners with Founder Collective and MCJ, AI-enabled heat pump water heaters that operate as grid-connected thermal storage – [The Investor Society](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/reservoir-raises-8m-to-make-water-heaters-that-people-and-the-grid-will-actually-want/).

InduPro (US) – $77M, Series B, Seattle biotech developing new therapeutics – [FinSMEs](https://www.finsmes.com/2026/08/indupro-raises-77m-in-series-b-funding.html?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-13-at-11.24.43---AM.png)

America is collecting more money but still falling further behind. Through July, federal receipts rose 3% to $4.49T, but spending climbed even faster to $6.28T. That pushed the fiscal-year deficit to nearly $1.8T, up 10% from the same period last year. One of the biggest pressures is interest on the national debt. Net interest costs have already reached $931B this fiscal year, putting them behind only Social Security and Medicare among major federal expenses. July alone added another $432B to the deficit, the largest monthly shortfall in more than five years. Higher revenue simply hasn’t kept pace with Washington’s growing bills. Source: [CarbonFinance](https://www.carbonfinance.io/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)

## 🏛️ Private Equity

Decart AI (Israel/US) – \~$6B, acquisition talks with Anthropic covering real-time video models and GPU optimization – [Bloomberg Línea](https://www.bloomberglinea.com/negocios/anthropic-estaria-en-conversaciones-para-comprar-la-startup-de-ia-decart-por-unos-us6000-millones/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Vantage Data Centers (US) – sponsor exit under review, with Silver Lake and DigitalBridge weighing an IPO at roughly $100B (\~$10B raise) or an outright sale of the hyperscale data center operator – [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/13/top-tech-news-today-august-13-2026-anthropic-deepmind-google-lenovo-microsoft-spacexai-more/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Edge Focus (US) – undisclosed new funding, NYC provider of technology, capital and access to consumer credit solutions, capitalizing its lending platform for the next growth phase – [FinSMEs](https://www.finsmes.com/2026/08/edge-focus-closes-new-funding.html?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

## 📈 Public & Capital Markets

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-08-13-at-11.27.01---AM.png)

Opening Market Figures, Thu 13 Aug, 2026.

Cisco (US) – earnings reaction, shares fell close to 10% despite record Q4 revenue of $17.3B (+18%) and $9.3B in full-year hyperscaler AI orders, as a hardware-heavy mix pushed gross margin guidance to 65%–66% – [Quartz](https://qz.com/cisco-earnings-q4-2026-record-results-stock-drops-081326?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Grupo Aval (Colombia) – earnings, Q2 attributable net income of COP $577.5B (+16.7% year over year) with ROAE at 12.7%, up from 7.4% in Q1 – [La República](https://www.larepublica.co/finanzas/resultados-financieros-de-grupo-aval-en-el-segundo-trimestre-de-2026-4457690?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Colombian peso (Colombia) – FX open, the dollar traded near $3,130 as softer U.S. inflation data and falling oil kept the pair inside its lateral range – [Valora Analitik](https://www.valoraanalitik.com/dolar-en-colombia-abre-a-la-baja-ante-la-distension-inflacionaria-en-ee-uu-y-la-caida-del-petroleo/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

## 📅 Web Archive

On this day in 1889, inventor William Gray received a patent for his coin-controlled telephone, helping lay the groundwork for the public payphone and a model in which access to communications infrastructure could be metered and paid for on demand - ⁠[AP News](https://apnews.com/article/ac09b46f26049bbd3d64da4baa62f8a5?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com)

Also on August 13, in 1973, the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals was founded, an early attempt to formalize professional standards and credentials for a computer industry that was rapidly moving from research labs into mainstream business - Computer History Museum. – ⁠[CHM](https://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/?utm%5Fsource=chatgpt.com)

The energy constraint is now pushing infrastructure offshore: Korean internet group Naver has backed Panthalassa, an Oregon startup designing floating data centers powered by wave energy and cooled by seawater – [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/13/top-tech-news-today-august-13-2026-anthropic-deepmind-google-lenovo-microsoft-spacexai-more/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

Logistics has quietly become the internet's soft target: CEVA Logistics is still restoring systems at eight European warehouses weeks after a late-July cyberattack, while Uber Freight investigates a separate incident in which attackers claim to hold a million files – [Tech Startups](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/13/top-tech-news-today-august-13-2026-anthropic-deepmind-google-lenovo-microsoft-spacexai-more/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).  
  
*See you tomorrow,*

[***Jose Kont***](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-kont/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)  
*The human behind The Investor Society.*

*Submit a deal for The Daily Dealflow newsletter via DM* [*here on LinkedIn*](https://www.linkedin.com/company/theinvestorsociety/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)*.*