Mark Walter Is Creating a Sports Empire With $10 Billion Lakers

For just under $10 billion, private equity firm 3G Capital recently bought Skechers — an ascendant global footwear brand with $9 billion in annual sales and 20,000 employees spread across 5,300 stores.

For the same sum, you could now buy the Los Angeles Lakers — a basketball team that generates an estimated $500 million a year, employs 1,000 people, and sells little more than TV rights, tickets, and dreams — plus a century of star-studded mystique.

That’s the record-breaking valuation agreed to by Mark Walter, the billionaire financier who runs Guggenheim Partners and already owns part of the Los ...