If there will be takers to the 22-percent combined stocks of Jim Buss and Johnny Buss, chances are the remaining Buss siblings would become minority stockholders in new LA Lakers set-up. This was recently raised by resilient LA Lakers president Jeanie Buss, who survived the attempts of her two brothers to wrest control of the management of Lakers franchise.
"They're trying to bust the trust so they can sell their [interests]...And if they sell, that'll leave us in the rest of us in a minority," Jeanie said rto the press recently. That is most possible because each of the Buss sibling of the six siblings has 11 percent share inherited by from late father Jerry Buss.
The Buss family trusts own 66 percent of the LA Lakers and they can elect three of the board's five members. Their father Jerry died in 2013 but the siblings' feud had started way back in 2012 when Jeanie's estranged husband and Knicks president Phil Jackson was sidelined to coach the team.
The two brothers with their longtime GM Mitch Kupchak effectively blocked the entry of Jackson in 2012. Jeanie earlier convinced Jackson to return to the LA Lakers that he led to five championships but the siblings' blockade succeeded. It took a toll on the relationship Jeanie and Jackson and by 2014 they separated. Last February the move of Jeanie to hire Magic Johnson as an adviser was also not received well by Jim Buss and Kupchak.
But Jeanie waged her fight further and on the same month she took an ax to her Jim and installed Johnson as president in what appeared as a major organizational shakeup in the organization of LA Lakers. She also sacked Mitch Kupchak from his position and replaced him with Rob Pelinka. Jim and Johnny Buss have been trying to reverse these moves of Jeanie in court.
However, the recent news says that when Jeanie Buss filed a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday, her bothers Jim and Johnny Buss recoiled to be backing out and floated words they would opt for cash out. This was bared to the press by another sibling, Janie Buss, who categorically said that her brothers Jim and Johnny failed to oust her sister Jeanie as president of LA Lakers.
Jeanie's restraining order is directed at quashing the planned board meeting next week to elect a new board of directors of LA Lakers without Jeanie. The brothers cancelled the meeting following Jeanie's filing of TRO. "This is no doubt the beginning and not the end of the game-playing...They don't have a legal leg to stand on," Jeanie's attorney Adam Streisand said, via the Los Angeles Times.
As Jeanie's TRO pleading will still be heard by a probate court in May, there is uncertainty on the future of the ownership of LA Lakers in a few months while the two brothers reportedly offer their shares for a cash out. At press time, however, there is yet no news about interested takers but chances are the share buyers in alliance with the non-Buss stockholders could bring change as new majority as the Buss siblings less Jim and Johnny Buss becomes a minority.
There is a problem though in the easy buying out of the two brothers because Forbes has recently valued LA Lakers to be worth about $3 billion. The brothers' shares would then be high priced and the specter of a troubled franchise would constrain immediate buyers.
(NBA City/YouTube)
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