The 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) The European Union came out in support of Airbnb, Uber and other sharing economy companies, encouraging member states not to ban their services except as a last resort.

2) More details have emerged about the French government’s raid of Google’s offices in Paris: the country’s finance minister has ruled out the possibility of a Google tax deal and government sources say that the investigation will take months, possibly years.

3) Rocket Internet published its financial results for Q1 2016. The Berlin-based giant says that portfolio companies are progressing towards profitability.

4) Spotify will launch in Japan in July, as it continues its international expansion with the objective of reaching profitability.

5) Qlik Technologies, the US-based but Swedish-founded analytics company, to be acquired by Thoma Bravo for $3 billion.

6) Vivendi’s hostile bid for Gameloft could signal that more acquisitions are on the way, including of sister company Ubisoft.

7) The German government says that it’s monitoring Chinese investment in the country and working on a Kuka counter-offer, which has received a $5 billion bid from Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group. China wants the proposed deal not to be politicised.

8) Swedish gaming company Paradox went public at a €377 million valuation, days after receiving a $20 million cash injection from Tencent.

9) Minecraft has now sold over 100 million copies, at an average pace of 53,000 per day in 2016.

10) Israeli online assistance company WalkMe raised a $50 million Series E round in march to IPO.

Bonus link: European and Israeli tech funding in May 2016: on track with €1.6 billion raised across 255 rounds

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This post first appeared on Tech.eu.