DigitalBridge (DBRG) Stock Soars on SoftBank Takeover Talks: Latest News, Analyst Forecasts and Valuation Debate as of December 6, 2025

Date: December 6, 2025

DigitalBridge Group Inc. (NYSE: DBRG) has suddenly moved from niche digital‑infrastructure specialist to front‑page market story.

On Friday, the stock surged roughly 45% in regular trading, closing at $14.12, after reports that Japan’s SoftBank Group is in talks to acquire the company and potentially take it private. ^[1] The move caps one of the most dramatic single‑day re-ratings the stock has seen in years and has sparked an intense debate about what DigitalBridge is really worth in an AI‑driven infrastructure world.

Below is a structured overview of all key news, forecasts, and analyses around DigitalBridge stock as of December 6, 2025.

SoftBank in Talks to Buy DigitalBridge: What We Know So Far

Reuters reported on December 5 that SoftBank is in discussions to acquire DigitalBridge, aiming to tap its portfolio of AI‑linked digital infrastructure assets. The deal could be agreed by the end of 2025, although both companies have declined to comment publicly. ^[2]

Key points from current reporting:

SoftBank is exploring a take‑private transaction for DigitalBridge. ^[3]
The talks are ongoing and no definitive agreement has been reached; the outcome remains uncertain. ^[4]
The potential buyer is motivated by DigitalBridge’s role as a large-scale investor and operator across data centers, fiber, towers, small cells and edge infrastructure, with about $108 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of September 2025. ^[5]
The deal fits into a broader global race to secure AI‑ready infrastructure; McKinsey has estimated that AI‑related infrastructure spending could reach $6.7 trillion by 2030. ^[6]

SoftBank itself is already part of the massive Stargate initiative, a planned $500 billion U.S. AI infrastructure build‑out involving partners such as OpenAI and Oracle, underlining its strategic focus on the sector. ^[7]

For now, investors are trading on deal probability and potential price, rather than confirmed terms.

DBRG Stock Price Action: From Laggard to Breakout

Before the takeover headlines, DigitalBridge had been a choppy ride for shareholders. Despite exposure to high‑growth themes like cloud and AI, the stock was down double digits for the year heading into this week. ^[8]

The SoftBank news changed that in a single session:

Closing price (Dec 5, 2025): $14.12, up 45.27% on the day. ^[9]
After‑hours quote: around $14.04. ^[10]
Day’s trading range: $9.65–$14.84, touching a new 52‑week high. ^[11]
Volume: about 56 million shares, far above normal levels. ^[12]
Market cap: approximately $2.7 billion at the close. ^[13]

Earlier in the day, Benzinga noted the stock was up more than 30% after Bloomberg’s initial report on the SoftBank talks, highlighting how fast sentiment flipped once a strategic buyer appeared. ^[14]

From a technical‑momentum standpoint, Investor’s Business Daily had already flagged that DigitalBridge’s Relative Strength (RS) Rating had climbed into the low‑80s in recent weeks — a level typically associated with strong price outperformance, though the stock was “not yet in a proper buy zone” at the time. ^[15] The SoftBank speculation has now pushed that momentum into overdrive.

Under the Hood: DigitalBridge’s Q3 2025 Fundamentals

Beyond the takeover buzz, investors are parsing DigitalBridge’s latest financials to judge whether the new valuation is justified.

According to a detailed breakdown of the Q3 2025 results:

GAAP net income attributable to common stockholders: about $16.8–17 million, a sharp improvement from a small loss in the same quarter last year. ^[16]
GAAP EPS:$0.09, modestly beating consensus estimates of $0.08 per share. ^[17]
Distributable earnings:$21.7 million, or $0.12 per share, up more than 100% year on year. ^[18]
Revenue: roughly $93–93.5 million, below analyst expectations of about $96–99 million. ^[19]
Fee revenue: up 22% year‑over‑year to about $93.5 million, driven by new capital formation and co‑investments. ^[20]
Fee‑earning equity under management (FEEUM): around $40.7 billion, up 19% year‑over‑year, hitting the firm’s full‑year target one quarter early. ^[21]
Fee‑related earnings (FRE):$37.3 million, up 43% year‑over‑year, with an FRE margin of roughly 40%, reflecting improving scalability. ^[22]

JPMorgan notes that DigitalBridge also reported 2.6 gigawatts of leasing in the third quarter from a 20.9 GW “power bank”, with 5.4 GW already built or under construction — a sign of the scale it is targeting in hyperscale and AI data centers. ^[23]

In short, profitability metrics are moving in the right direction, even though headline revenue is a bit softer than hoped. That mix (EPS beat, revenue miss) often matters less for a capital‑light asset manager than the trajectory of fee income and capital formation, both of which are trending higher.

Strategic Moves: AI Data Centers, DBP III and Portfolio Recycling

This week’s takeover speculation doesn’t come in a vacuum. DigitalBridge has been steadily stacking strategic blocks that make it an attractive, scalable AI‑infrastructure platform.

1. AI data centers in Korea with KT Corporation

On November 26, 2025, DigitalBridge announced a Memorandum of Understanding with KT Corporation to collaborate on next‑generation AI data centers in Korea. ^[24]

Highlights of the deal:

Focus on large‑scale “AI factory”‑type data centers in Korea, potentially scaling to gigawatt‑level facilities and requiring multi‑billion‑dollar investment. ^[25]
The partnership builds on Korea’s positioning as an emerging AI infrastructure hub in Asia, leveraging KT’s telecom and cloud expertise. ^[26]
The project is expected to be a key deployment channel for capital raised in DigitalBridge’s latest flagship fund.

2. DBP III: $11.7 Billion of Capital for AI‑Era Infrastructure

In mid‑November, DigitalBridge announced the close of DigitalBridge Partners III (DBP III), its third value‑add fund, with:

$7.2 billion in fund commitments.
$4.5 billion in LP co‑investment commitments.
Total capital formation of $11.7 billion for the strategy. ^[27]

The fund is already investing in platforms such as Vantage Data Centers North America, Yondr Group, Orange Barrel Media, FiberNow and JTOWER, with a strong emphasis on hyperscale data centers, fiber, and tower infrastructure tied to AI and cloud demand. ^[28]

For a prospective buyer like SoftBank, this embedded growth pipeline — backed by committed capital — is part of the appeal.

3. Digita Group sale: recycling capital from towers

On December 2, Digita Group, a Nordic tower platform majority owned by DigitalBridge‑managed funds since 2018, announced an agreement to be acquired by GI Partners. ^[29]

Key details:

Under DigitalBridge’s ownership, Digita expanded from roughly 200 towers to more than 950 across Finland and Iceland, while growing its data center and IoT businesses. ^[30]
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. ^[31]

The sale illustrates DigitalBridge’s model of building and then monetizing infrastructure platforms, potentially freeing up capital to redeploy into higher‑growth AI and hyperscale opportunities.

Analyst Forecasts and Implied Takeover Pricing

The SoftBank rumor has pushed analysts and valuation models into overdrive.

Street targets before and alongside the deal news

According to StockAnalysis, based on data from seven covering analysts:

The average 12‑month price target for DBRG stands at $16.79, implying about 19% upside from the recent closing price of $14.12.
The stock carries a “Strong Buy” consensus rating. ^[32]

JPMorgan, in a note published December 5, reiterated its Overweight rating and a $18.00 price target for DigitalBridge following the SoftBank headlines. ^[33]

What a potential SoftBank bid might look like

JPMorgan goes further and sketches what it sees as a reasonable takeout range:

A “base case” takeout value of around $28 per share based on 2026 estimates.
A high‑end valuation range of roughly $30–35 per share using 2027 projections. ^[34]

Those numbers imply the possibility of substantial upside from current levels if SoftBank were to pay a full strategic premium, though that assumes the parties agree on price and that the deal clears regulatory and financing hurdles.

At the same time, the Street’s published 12‑month targets — which are generally not yet updated for a change‑of‑control scenario — remain clustered in the high‑teens region. ^[35]

Valuation: AI Premium or Classic Overstretch?

The rally has also triggered warnings that the stock may now be ahead of its fundamentals.

Rich multiples

On trailing numbers, StockAnalysis shows DigitalBridge trading at roughly: ^[36]

Trailing 12‑month revenue: about $100 million.
Trailing EPS: around $0.06.
Price‑to‑earnings (P/E): roughly 131x.
Forward P/E: around 74x.

Simply Wall St, using its own valuation framework, argues that:

DigitalBridge’s P/E, which it estimates at about 126.5x, is far above both the capital‑markets industry average (~24x) and a peer group average (~13x).
Its “Excess Returns” model suggests the stock is roughly 156% overvalued versus estimated intrinsic value, labeling DBRG as “OVERVALUED” at current prices. ^[37]

Skeptical commentary

Television personality and investor Jim Cramer recently described DigitalBridge as “expensive” and “not the right stock for this moment”, responding to a caller asking whether to buy, sell or hold the stock. ^[38] His comments pre‑dated the latest price spike, but they reinforce concerns that much of the AI and digital‑infrastructure optimism may already be reflected in the price.

In other words, markets are currently paying up not for what DigitalBridge is today, but for what it could become — or for the possibility of a rich takeover bid.

Why SoftBank Might Pay Up Anyway

From a strategic buyer’s perspective, the valuation story looks different from a pure public‑market screen.

Key assets and strengths SoftBank may be targeting:

A global digital infrastructure platform with $108 billion in AUM across data centers, towers, fiber, small cells and edge assets. ^[39]
A robust data center pipeline, including 5.4 GW built or under construction and 20.9 GW of potential power capacity. ^[40]
Fresh $11.7 billion DBP III capital to scale into AI‑era opportunities, including hyperscale campuses and power‑intensive AI workloads. ^[41]
Proven ability to build, scale and then exit platforms, as seen with Digita Group in the Nordics and prior deals like Switch in the U.S. ^[42]

Finimize framed the potential deal as part of a broader trend of “smart money” staking out the “backbone of AI” — the physical infrastructure of data centers and networks — amid record capital flows into the sector. ^[43]

From that angle, paying a headline multiple that screens high on traditional metrics could still look rational if SoftBank believes it can:

Deploy much larger pools of capital faster than DigitalBridge could alone.
Extract synergies by aligning portfolio companies with its other AI initiatives (including Arm, Vision Fund investments and Stargate).
Capture a long runway of secular growth in AI, cloud and connectivity.

Key Risks and What to Watch Next

Despite the excitement, several risk factors are front and center for investors watching DBRG:

Deal uncertainty
- Talks are ongoing and may still fall apart; neither party has confirmed terms or even the likelihood of completion. ^[44]
- If no transaction materializes, the stock could retrace a significant portion of its recent gains.
Valuation compression
- At triple‑digit P/E multiples and high forward valuations, any setback in growth, fundraising or asset performance could cause the market to re‑rate the stock lower, especially if AI‑related enthusiasm cools. ^[45]
Execution and funding needs
- Building out 20+ GW of power‑hungry data centers and gigawatt‑scale AI campuses will require billions of dollars in capex over multiple years. ^[46]
- Even with DBP III capital, DigitalBridge must juggle fundraising, project risk, regulatory approvals and power availability in multiple regions.
Regulatory and geopolitical considerations
- A cross‑border acquisition by SoftBank of a large U.S.-listed digital‑infrastructure manager could attract regulatory scrutiny, especially in an environment where critical data center infrastructure is increasingly viewed through a national‑security lens. ^[47]
Macro conditions
- Interest‑rate expectations, credit markets and broader equity sentiment will continue to influence both infrastructure valuations and the financing environment for large deals.

Bottom Line: A High‑Beta Bet on AI Infrastructure – With Deal Optionality

As of December 6, 2025, DigitalBridge sits at the intersection of three powerful forces:

A secular boom in AI and digital infrastructure, supported by multi‑trillion‑dollar long‑term spending forecasts. ^[48]
A proven platform that has raised significant new capital (DBP III), expanded fee‑earning assets, and delivered improving earnings metrics in Q3 2025. ^[49]
Fresh strategic‑buyer interest from SoftBank, injecting the possibility of a sizeable takeover premium — but also adding event risk if negotiations stall. ^[50]

For now, markets are treating DBRG less like a sleepy asset manager and more like a live M&A situation with an AI‑infrastructure twist. Whether that story ends in an agreed deal, a competitive bidding scenario, or a sharp comedown from elevated expectations will depend on what SoftBank, DigitalBridge, and regulators do over the coming weeks and months.