Vodafone, the second largest Romanian mobile telephony operator, has paid EUR 235,000 for 15 percent of the share capital of Trilulilu Music, an offspring of the local YouTube-like online business Trilulilu, according to Ziarul Financiar. The deal was made public at the end of October this year, but the financial details have only just surfaced in an announcement published in the Romanian Official Gazette.

Some EUR 3,550 (RON 15,880) left Vodafone’s pockets as payment for the nominal value of the Trilulilu Music shares, to which a EUR 15 (RON 65.17) per share premium was added, totaling EUR 231,644 (RON 1.034 million). According to the terms of the deal published in the Official Romanian Journal and quoted by ZF, the music-minded Romanian online business is estimated to be worth EUR 1.5 million.

The transaction, presented as a special partnership between the two companies on the Vodafone web site two months ago, will enable the mobile operator to grab a slice of the mobile and web audio streaming pie cooked up by Trilulilu under the Zonga brand.

“We are happy to support a new Romanian brand that is very likely to become the favorite application of Romanians who have a passion for music,” reads a press statement quoting Mihai Ghyka, Chief Commercial Officer, Consumer Business Unit, VodafoneRomania. “Due to our partnership with Trilulilu, Vodafone customers will have exclusive access to free mobile traffic when using the application as well as three months of Zonga free trial,” added Ghyka.

Zonga was launched by Trilulilu as a service allowing smartphone and tablet users to listen to 16 millions of tunes on the go by paying monthly subscriptions  ranging from EUR 2.4 to EUR 4 (without VAT). The deal is expected to allow Vodafone to capitalize, one year from now, on the music consumption of an estimated 50,000 of its own paying Zonga subscribers.

Trilulilu was founded in 2007 by a group of young entrepreneurs living in Cluj, led by Sergiu Biris (in picture), currently acting as company CEO. The largest Triluliu Music shareholder is businessman Alexis Bonte. The company’s shareholder list now includes Vodafone Romania, Universal Music and Trilulilu.

Ioana Jelea, ioana.jelea@romania-insider.com