Europe’s largest independent towerco, Cellnex, pulled out of the race to acquire Deutsche Telekom’s tower unit, in a surprise move that sparked an even more surprising one – a deal for 51% of the DT unit to be acquired by DigitalBridge Group for $17.5bn. DigitalBridge made its last-minute bid in partnership with investment firm Brookfield Infrastructure, prevailing over a consortium led by private equity giant KKR. Once Cellnex backed out, KKR was widely expected to acquire DT’s GD Towers, which is the largest towerco in Germany. It consists of two units – Deutsche Funkturm in Germany, which has over 33,000 sites, and Magenta Telekom Infra in Austria, with over 7,000 sites. But DigitalBridge emerged the victor, and its…