Marc Lore sells his stake in the Timberwolves and Lynx for $4.5 billion, the latest in a wave of record NBA sales that includes the Lakers’ $12.5B deal.
In another eye-catching sports business move, Marc Lore is selling his controlling stake in the Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx to billionaire investor Marc Stad. The move values the two franchises together at $4.5 billion, with the sale coming just months before the NBA’s 2026-27 season tips off, and remarkably, only 14 months after Lore fully took over the Timberwolves.
Details of the Franchise Sale
Lore, Stad, and minority owner Alex Rodriguez confirmed the deal in a joint statement after news broke Friday morning. Stad, founder of Dragoneer Investment Group, was already one of the Timberwolves’ largest minority owners, having first bought in as part of the original deal that saw Rodriguez and Lore take over the franchise. Under the new arrangement, Rodriguez will not sell his stake and is actually increasing his investment, while Lore will retain an undisclosed minority stake.
Timberwolves to be a major part of the deal ยท Credits: via Instagram @timberwolves
Once completed, Stad’s wife, Elisa, will become the Timberwolves’ governor, and Rodriguez will remain governor of the Lynx, who currently hold the WNBA’s best record at 30-7. A source told Front Office Sports the talks began because Lore wants to focus on taking his food distribution company, Wonder, public, having told Fortune in July he was preparing for a Wonder IPO. The deal still requires league approval. It’s a striking jump in value from just over a year ago, when Lore and Rodriguez’s original purchase of the Timberwolves from Glen Taylor valued the team at $1.5 billion.
Part of a Wave of Record-Breaking NBA Sales, Led by the LA Lakers
The Timberwolves deal is the latest in a rapid string of NBA ownership changes reshaping the league’s valuation landscape. Most notably, Mark Walter stunned the basketball world by agreeing to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation – a staggering jump considering Walter had only agreed to buy the team at a then-record $10 billion valuation roughly a year earlier.
Walter’s sale comes as his broader business empire faces a fraud investigation, adding another layer of intrigue to the deal. Elsewhere, Tom Dundon reached an agreement to buy the Portland Trail Blazers at a valuation north of $4 billion roughly a year ago, following Bill Chisholm’s purchase of the Boston Celtics at a then-record $6.1 billion valuation just months before that.
Together, these deals paint a picture of an NBA where franchise values are compounding at a pace even seasoned owners are struggling to keep up with, turning teams once viewed as multi-decade holds into assets being flipped within a year or two of purchase.