G4Media was represented in the sale to Radu Budeanu by the former director of Roșia Montană Gold Corporation. “It has been sold for 5 million euros,” say two sources / “There are confidentiality clauses and I can say nothing,” said Dan Tăpălagă, one of the journalists who sold G4Media

Profitup is called Dragoș Tanase's company, former CEO Gabriel Resources and Director Roşia Montana Gold Corporation, which had a contract with G4media for this transaction, confirmed for Hotnews both Dragoș Tanase and Dan Tăpălagă.

• Tăpălagă said, for Hotnews, that due to the clauses of the contract, he cannot comment on the sum of 5 million euros, but confirmed that the transaction is full, not just a part of the G4Media company. “I categorically sold all the social shares. So all the parties held by me, Cristi Pantazi and the other shareholders. All the shares held in the group,” said Dan Tăpălagă.
• What will happen to the non -profit association “Group 4 Media Freedom and Democracy”, supporting independent journalism? “The non -profit association will be, in its turn, taken over by Mr. Budeanu's trust,” the hotnews question replied.

Profitup company assisted G4Media in the transaction announced on Tuesday, by which the media group sold to the businessman Radu Budeanu, sentenced to corruption to two years with suspension.

How the process has been carried out

At such transactions, the media company that wants to sell, in this case G4media, chooses representatives. Some are lawyers, others are finance specialists. And the desired companies are also assisted by similar skills.

The full value of the company is evaluated, whose actions can then be sold partially or completely.

“There have been many specialists involved in the evaluation of G4media, both in the legal and financial area,” one of those currently confirmed for Hotnews with G4Media negotiations. Contacted, one of the specialists involved also spoke about the representative of G4media and about the price.

Specialist involved: “They asked for 6 million euros based on the profit of 500,000 euros out of 2024”

Dragoș Tanase, former CEO of Gabriel Resources and former director at Roșia Montană Gold Corporation represented G4Media through his profit. However, Profitup “provides accounting and financial services for G4”, according to Dan Tăpălagă, in dialogue with Hotnews.

“It started from a self-assessment of those from G4media of 6 million euros, so did Dan Tăpăgă and Cristian Pantazi that they are worth the Media Company. They based their request on the profit of 500,000 euros of the last year 2024,” said one of the specialists. Due to the delicate basis, the statements for Hotnews were made under the protection of privacy.

Better financial result due to electoral advertising

There have been several assessments, says the same specialist. None of them were 6 million euros. “G4Media brought a very good result in 2024 and because it was an election year and the advertising collected from the parties was important in the media. Therefore, it is unlikely that the results are the same in the coming years,” was the calculation made by the bidders.

The biggest evaluation for G4media was 5 million euros, from Radu Budeanu, confirmed two sources, for Hotnews. One of the testimonies comes from a person close to the buyer, and the second from someone involved in the sale – purchase process.

“With all respect, I understand curiosity, but here are confidentiality clauses”

All the shares were sold, not partially, said a source, confirmed for the editorial and by Dan Tăpălagă, who responded to the dialogue request with Hotnews. “I categorically sold all the social shares. So all the parties held by me, Cristi Pantazi and the other shareholders. All the shares held in the group,” said Tăpălagă.

Asked if the price of 5 million euros, confirmed by two sources for Hotnews, is correct, Tăpălagă did not want to discuss any of the aspects related to the amount, which the contract considers confidential.

“With all respect, I understand curiosity, but here are privacy clauses and I can say nothing,” said Tăpălagă.

And the Association for Independent Journalism goes to Radu Budeanu

What will happen to the non-profit association of the support of independent journalism, where the public made donations and took grants worth 300,000 euros in 2024, asked Hotnews on the founder of G4media.

“The non -profit association will be, in its turn, taken over by the trust of Mr. Budeanu,” the tăpăgă replied.

Asked if the G4Media brand was on the association or SRL, he said: “The brand was, as far as I know, but I would not want to make mistakes, passed from the association on SRL.”

It was sold until now, at advertising, along with Radu Budeanu's sites

G4Media advertising, the main source of income of the site, is sold not directly by the company, but by a director called Thematmatic Digital, owned by businessmen Radu Budeş, Cătălin Săndulache and Andrei Ursuleanu.

G4Media has reported here about Thematmatic Digital achievements, a director represents a sales house for several media companies, sites, television.

The director makes sales packages to advertising agencies and customers (companies), to use their negotiation force. In the case of G4Media, the packages were made so far including with the sites of Radu Budeanu, Gândul and Mediafax, or with the Romania TV website, according to the public information provided by TheMatic Digital.

Who owned G4media

The company that edits the websites of the G4Media trust until this transaction is called G4 Global Journalism SRL. The company is owned, according to data on terms.ro by:

• Dan Tăpălagă (48% of shares)
• Cristian Pantazi (48%)
• Cristian Drumcea (4% – Marketing and Advertising Director at G4Media)

Cristian Drumcea is also an administrator within the company.

G4 Global Journalism SRL: 1.2 million euros turnover and profit of 600,000 euros

G4 Global Journalism SRL had in 2024 a turnover of 5.95 million lei (an increase of 97% compared to 2023) and a net profit of over 3 million lei (more than 187% than the previous year).

Journalists Dan Tăpălagă and Cristian Pantazi are also associated in a company: Economia Global Journalism SRL (established in September 2023), a company that owns, in turn, G4FOOD SRL (established in March 2024).

In 2024, Global Journalism had a turnover of 587 thousand lei and a profit of almost 285 thousand lei. Here the shareholders are Dan Tăpălagă (45%), Cristian Pantazi (45%), Elena-Alexandra Deacu (5%, editor-in-chief Economy) and Cristian Drăcea (5%).

Association “Group 4 Media Freedom and Democracy”: revenues in 300,000 euros in 2024

In addition to these companies, there is also the Association “Group 4 Media Freedom and Democracy” (established in November 2017), which held, at one point, the brand of the G4Media site.

“Founded in difficult times for the whole society, as a non-profit organization, G4media collaborates with all journalists ready to go to their job,” the non-profit association, according to their own description, has defined.

In 2024, the association had revenues of 1,412,447 lei and expenses of 1,439,315 lei, which led to losses of almost 27,000 lei, according to totalFirme.ro. The debts registered in 2024 are just over 334,000 lei.

The last year in which the association made a profit was 2021, when the profit amounted to almost 357,000 lei. In 2022, the losses reached 251,792 lei, and for 2023 the data does not exist.

How many employees does the G4Media trust have

G4 Global Journalism SRL last year had seven employees on average, according to terms.ro. Economy Global Journalism SRL reported an average employee in the same year, as well as G4FOOD SRL.

The association that owned the G4Media brand had in 2024 a total of five employees, according to TotalFirme.ro, decreasing by 50% compared to 2023.