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DigitalBridge steps slightly outside its digital lane with a $316 million infrastructure buy

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

DigitalBridge Group, Inc. has announced that its operating company, DigitalBridge Operating Company, LLC, has completed its transaction to acquire AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity investment management business, which has been rebranded as InfraBridge in a transaction valued at $316 million. A considerable amount of InfraBridge’s assets are outside of DigitalBridge’s flagship digital infrastructure equity business. The deal was announced last …

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If DigitalBridge’s turnaround falls short, Legion Partners wants Ganzi to sell the expanding REIT

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

A small activist investment fund wants to be the tail that wags the dog after it heavily weighted its company’s portfolio in DigitalBridge Group stock. It believes the company should consider a sale if current efforts fail to boost shareholder value. Legion Partners Asset Management, with a portfolio today of about $280 million, began its investment in DigitalBridge during the …

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ExteNet inks an exclusive T-Mobile partnership for wireless infrastructure in nation’s largest venues

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

ExteNet Systems, a leading privately held owner of LTE/5G wireless and fiber neutral-host communications infrastructure, today announced it had entered an exclusive agreement with T-Mobile to deploy digital wireless infrastructure in large sports, entertainment, hospitality and transportation venues, as well as to rationalize and decommission T-Mobile’s overlapping network assets inherited from its merger with Sprint. The agreement, which expands ExteNet’s …

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DigitalBridge and IFM shell out $11 billion for data center company Switch

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

DigitalBridge Group Inc. and IFM Investors have announced they have agreed to buy data center operator Switch Inc. for $11 billion, including debt, marking the latest deal in the digital asset sector. Last November, American Tower announced the acquisition of CoreSite for $10.1 billion, in which the company paid $170 per share for 25 data centers, 21 cloud on ramps and …

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DigitalBridge surpasses its fund target by over $2.3 billion in commitments

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

DigitalBridge Group, Inc. has announced that DigitalBridge Investment Management, the firm’s investment management platform, has closed its second flagship fund, DigitalBridge Partners II, LP, with $8.3 billion in commitments, surpassing its original target of $6.0 billion. The Fund received strong demand from a diverse, global group of new and existing investors, resulting in an over 100 percent re-up rate from …

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DigitalBridge creates first scaled, independent tower company in Iceland through two acquisitions

In Daily News Briefs by Wireless Estimator

Boca Raton, FL-based DigitalBridge Group, Inc. announced that funds affiliated with DigitalBridge Investment Management, the firm’s investment management platform, have completed the acquisition of the telecom tower portfolios of Sýn hf. (Sýn) and Nova hf. (“Nova”), two leading Icelandic mobile network operators (“MNOs”), creating ÍslandsTurnar. ÍslandsTurnar is the first independent tower company of scale in Iceland with national coverage to …

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IFC will invest an additional $25 million in infrastructure assets managed by DigitalBridge

In Daily News Briefs by Wireless Estimator

DigitalBridge Group, Inc. today announced that the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) will be investing $100 million in digital infrastructure assets managed by DigitalBridge in Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia to expand digital access and connectivity. IFC’s $100 million investment includes $75 million already committed in three of DigitalBridge’s portfolio companies: Scala Data Centers (“Scala”), a leading scaled hyperscale data center operator …

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Colony Capital, Digital Colony rebrand under the umbrella of a ‘new’ DigitalBridge

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Colony Capital, Inc. today announced a corporate rebranding of the company to DigitalBridge, effective June 22, 2021. Digital Colony, the Company’s digital infrastructure investment platform, will also change to operate under the DigitalBridge brand. In connection with the transition, the corporate name will be changed to DigitalBridge Group, Inc. and the Company will begin trading under a new NYSE ticker …

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SBA is doubling down on data centers after successful Chicago edge experiment

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

SBA Communications jumped into edge computing almost a year ago with the purchase of Chicago data center New Continuum to learn how to maximize their interest in the growing field that their competitors were taking an active role in,  and the experiment was successful. During Monday’s Q2 earnings call, CEO Jeffrey Stoops announced that the company has bought their second …

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Top towerco execs enthusiastic about the industry’s future

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Executives gave upbeat assessments of the tower industry on the “View From the Top: Tower Executive Roundtable,” moderated by Jonathan Adelstein, President and CEO of the Wireless Industry Association during its virtual Connect (X) All Access conference yesterday afternoon. Panelists included Jay Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer, Crown Castle;  Alex Gellman, Chief Executive Officer, Vertical Bridge; Jeffrey Stoops, President …

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Contractor survey uncovers some startling financial statistics that could trigger a 5G train wreck

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

In their drive to lower capex as they roll out 5G, carriers have created a troubling national Achille’s heel – a contractor base that has many companies swimming in debt with serious cash flow problems, according to results of an extensive nationwide survey taken by Wireless Estimator. The wireless contractor survey that was completed last quarter by 263 vetted companies, clearly indicates that …

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Comments on contractor roadblocks set up by carriers that will derail America’s 5G race

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Deeply concerned about the unsustainable state of wireless contracting, company executives provided 328 optional comments in Wireless Estimator’s extensive survey that was unveiled today. Armed with anonymity, it’s not possible to verify the accuracy of their statements. But it’s clear that their comments, in most cases, were well-thought-out summaries of the difficulties they are facing as carrier capex cuts, extended …

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Carriers either ignore or are unaware of contractors’ higher than average truck roll expenses

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

Wireless contractors can’t be profitable with the hourly rates set by carriers and turfing contractors in many markets or the rates that they have to use to successfully win a bid, according to company executives who registered their concerns in an extensive nation-wide survey taken by Wireless Estimator that will be released this week. “They treat us like we’re a …

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Towerco financial support of wireless workers accelerates with a ‘buck a tower’ sponsors

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

The Tower Family Foundation (TTF), a 501c-3 non-profit, today recognized the updated support of tower owner/vertical solutions provider companies who are donors to the organization’s “$1 Per Tower” fundraising campaign with towercos Cellcom, Performance Development Group, Ltd. and Vogue Towers joining the inaugural list of donor firms participating in the capital campaign. The “$1 Per Tower” effort involves firms who …

Ganzi: “If you think of 5G as a baseball game, we are in the first inning”

In Daily News Briefs by Wireless Estimator

Keeping in theme with the topic of 5G implementation at Wireless West in Los Angeles, the morning was kicked off with a focused and insightful look at that process from Digital Bridge co-founder and CEO Marc Ganzi. Of particular emphasis in Ganzi’s presentation was the need for forward thinking in regard to the scale of the rollout required to meet …

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AT&T and Verizon threaten the big three towercos with a new Tillman 200 tower scheme

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

In a move clearly positioned as a threat to major tower owners to lower their lease rates, AT&T, Verizon and Tillman Infrastructure announced a joint agreement today to build hundreds of cell towers, with the potential for significantly more new site locations in the future. Last year during an investors conference, Bill Hogg, AT&T’s president of technology operations, said that …

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Towercos headed for some stiff competition with formation of Lendlease Towers

In Featured News by Wireless Estimator

When Lendlease recently entered the U.S. tower market in May with its purchase of Parallel Infrastructure’s 450 towers, it is likely that major tower operators viewed the acquisition as a missed opportunity and another competitive thorn in their rosy future, and possibly shrugged off Lendlease Americas CEO Denis Hickey’s statement that he would expand those holdings. True to his promise, …

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FCC appoints WIA members and leaders to broadband deployment committee

In Associations News, Featured News by Wireless Estimator

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today announced that members and leaders of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) were selected to serve on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), a new federal advisory committee charged with exploring ways to accelerate deployment of high-speed Internet access nationwide and to close the digital divide. WIA members named to the Committee include: Marc Ganzi, Chief …

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Alaska’s largest telecom company, GCI, is acquired for $1.12 billion

In Daily News Briefs by Wireless Estimator

General Communication Inc. (GCI), Alaska’s largest telecommunications company, will be acquired by Liberty Ventures Group, a subsidiary of Colorado-based media conglomerate Liberty Interactive Corp., the company announced in a statement. The $1.12 billion buyout allows GCI to expand its already leading position in Alaska and expand to markets outside the state so the company will continue to have staying power …

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Digital Bridge’s CEO and his spouse solve capacity problems with a $27 million check

In Daily News Briefs by Wireless Estimator

Marc Ganzi, co-founder and CEO of Digital Bridge Holdings, is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and oftentimes drills down to meeting capacity needs from a fiber-based architecture connected to macro sites, small cells and Wi-Fi. So when the Palm Beach Post quoted Ganzi as stating “We needed more capacity,” it would be expected that he was ready to again …