BOCA RATON, Fla., March 13, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG), a leading global digital infrastructure investment firm, announced today that its portfolio company Zayo, which it acquired in partnership with EQT in 2020, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Crown Castle’s Fiber Solutions business in a transaction valuing the business at approximately $4.25 billion. The acquisition will strengthen Zayo’s ability to deliver high-performance connectivity solutions to businesses and service providers.
With this acquisition, Zayo will expand its network with approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber, increasing its overall reach to more than 70,000 on-net locations. Crown Castle’s metro-focused fiber assets complement Zayo’s long-haul network, enhancing services for hyperscalers, data centers, enterprises, carriers, cities, and rural communities as demand for cloud and AI-driven connectivity continues to rise.
"As AI adoption accelerates, the need for scalable, high-capacity networks has never been greater," said Marc Ganzi, Chief Executive Officer of DigitalBridge. "Crown Castle’s metro-focused fiber network is a valuable addition that will help Zayo expand its reach in key markets and better support the next generation of digital applications. Alongside EQT, DigitalBridge remains committed to investing in world-class network infrastructure to power AI, cloud computing, and enterprise connectivity."
"This transaction strengthens Zayo’s ability to meet the growing demand for high-speed, low-latency fiber solutions," said Jonathan Friesel, Senior Managing Director and Head of Fiber at DigitalBridge. "With cloud and AI-driven workloads increasing, network reliability and scalability are more important than ever. This acquisition enhances Zayo’s capacity to support data-intensive applications while improving overall fiber availability for enterprises, carriers, and cloud providers."
With Crown Castle’s fiber network, Zayo will expand its coverage in major metropolitan areas, enhancing scalable, high-performance connectivity for its customers. This investment supports Zayo’s growth strategy and strengthens its ability to meet the increasing bandwidth demands driven by AI, cloud computing, and enterprise connectivity.
As the leading specialist investor in digital infrastructure, DigitalBridge remains committed to supporting the development of next-generation networks. Across the digital infrastructure ecosystem, DigitalBridge-backed platforms collectively operate nearly 300,000 route miles of fiber across 550 markets worldwide, advancing digital infrastructure through investments in data centers, towers, fiber, and edge infrastructure.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
About DigitalBridge
DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure. With a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem, including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells, and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages $96 billion of infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. For more information, visit: www.digitalbridge.com.
About Zayo
For more than 17 years, Zayo has empowered some of the world’s largest and most innovative companies to connect what’s next for their business. The Zayo group of companies connects 400 global markets with future-ready networks that span over 18.7 million fiber miles and 146,000 route miles. Zayo’s tailored connectivity solutions and managed services enable carriers, cloud providers, data centers, schools, and enterprises to deliver exceptional experiences, from core to cloud to edge. Discover how Zayo connects what’s next at www.zayo.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," or "potential" or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, and may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Factors that might cause such a difference include whether the transaction will close on the anticipated timeline, the impact of AI on demand for fiber networks and capacity and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in DigitalBridge’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, and its other reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements reflect DigitalBridge’s good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. DigitalBridge cautions investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. DigitalBridge is under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release, nor to conform prior statements to actual results or revised expectations, and DigitalBridge does not intend to do so.
