TeliaSonera on Wednesday acquired a minority stake in music streaming provider Spotify as part of an expanded partnership between the two companies.
The Swedish incumbent will pay US$115 million for a 1.4% stake in Spotify – which is also headquartered in Sweden – valuing the latter at $8.2 billion.
The companies have also agreed to commit resources, staff and other unspecified assets for the purposes of working together on media distribution, customer insights, data analytics and advertising. A joint TeliaSonera-Spotify team will be established to manage the collaborative projects.
"We have a long and great relationship with TeliaSonera and I’m pleased we’re able to take this to the next level together," said Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, in a statement.
Spotify and TeliaSonera first partnered in 2009, a deal that saw the latter bundle Spotify’s premium music streaming service with a range of its mobile and fixed Internet packages.
In the 12 months to November 2011, when the partnership was first extended, Spotify subscriptions sold through TeliaSonera had increased by 300%, and one in five TeliaSonera subscribers also had a Spotify subscription.
"Spotify is a great company, loved by customers and with a world class take on innovation. I’m excited to join Spotify’s journey as investor and key partner," said Johan Dennelind, CEO of TeliaSonera, on Wednesday.
The announcement was made the same week that Apple introduced a series of new services, including a music streaming offer that will compete directly with Spotify.
