COLONY WILL NOW HAVE $60B ASSETS

Investment management company Colony Capital, has just announced its acquisition of Digital Bridge Holdings LLC for $325 million.

The acquisition of Digital is coming just after the final closing of Digital Colony Partners, a $4.05 billion fund sponsored by Colony and Digital Bridge.

“I have been working closely with Tom and many of the senior Colony executives as we raised and now invest the Digital Colony Partners fund,” said Marc C. Ganzi, a founder and CEO of Digital Bridge.

“I’m thrilled to combine our team with their powerful arsenal of operating and financial expertise, and the Colony balance sheet and fundraising channels, which will enable us to scale and stay ahead of trends in digital infrastructure.”

At the close of this transaction, Ganzi, who is also the Managing Partner and an Investment Committee Member at Digital Colony, will move to become the CEO of Colony, taking over Thomas J. Barrack, Jr., who will return to the position of Executive Chairman.

“Our combined vision will focus on the reality that ever-larger numbers of people will use more devices, and the true explosion of use, driven by interconnected devices, cloud computing, mobility, big data, the internet of things, and especially the 5G roll-out, is still to come,” said Ganzi.

Colony highlighted that the combination of both companies also paves way for its leadership plans, which will be implemented over approximately 18 to 24 months.

“Nine months ago when I returned to the CEO position, part of our plan was to ensure that our leadership and direction of the Company was positioned for dominance for the next decade,” said Barrack.

“I have known Marc Ganzi for over two decades and have admiringly watched his progression and success as an entrepreneur, visionary, and as the leading operator and investor in the digital world.

Digital Bridge manages about $20 billion of digital infrastructure globally, directly and through Digital Colony Partners, and pro forma for Digital Colony Partners’ pending Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. transaction.

Combining this portfolio with Colony’s sole footprint, the merged firm will manage approximately $60 billion of assets.

It was also announced that, Ganzi will focus with Barrack and the Colony board and executive team to continue Colony’s strategic plan of selling non-core assets, reducing G&A, growing investment management, generating liquidity and de-risking, and maintaining REIT status and a dividend.