These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

This week, we published episode #87 of our podcast, in which we talk about the Copyright Directive, European grants for entrepreneurs, Evaneos' funding, the future of TomTom, global “right to be forgotten,” events, recommendations, and much more.

Our research team tracked 78 tech funding deals worth more than €564 million, as well as 10 M&A transactions and 1 IPO Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.

We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter (note: the full newsletter is now available to paying subscribers only). Here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for last week:

1) Shares of London-based luxury online marketplace Farfetch surged as much as 53 percent in their market debut as investors placed their bet on the company's technology and unique niche in high-end luxury. Farfetch raised $885 million in the IPO and reached a valuation of roughly $6.2 billion.

2) Uber is in early talks to buy food-delivery company Deliveroo for several billion dollars, according to a report by Bloomberg. A bid for London-based Deliveroo, last valued at more than $2 billion, would mark a major attempt by Uber to dominate the food-delivery business in Europe.

3) Amazon risks following in the footsteps of Google after the EU’s antitrust chief said regulators are asking how the online retailer is treating smaller rivals trading on its own website. After fining Google billions of euros, the EU is checking how Amazon gathers information on sales made by competitors on Amazon Marketplace and whether that gives it an edge when it sells to customers.

4) Vonage, the US-based Internet telephony service provider, has announced the acquisition of the UK-founded cloud contact centre company NewVoiceMedia for $350 million in an all-cash deal. NewVoiceMedia claims to have more than 700 primarily mid-market and enterprise customers using its Contact Centre-as-a-Service solutions, including Adobe, Siemens, FundingCircle, and Rapid7.

5) Facebook and Twitter face sanctions unless they comply with European consumer rules by the end of the year, the EU said as its regulators continue to their crackdown on US social media giants over privacy concerns. Meanwhile, Airbnb has made the necessary changes in response to regulatory demands.

6) The UK government is reportedly preparing to establish a new Internet regulator that would make tech firms liable for content published on their platforms and have the power to sanction companies that fail to take down illegal material and hate speech within hours.

7) Just over two years after the European Commission ruled that Apple was receiving illegal state aid from Ireland, the company has now paid back the entire 13.1 billion euros ($15.3 billion) it owed in back taxes. The EC confirmed the payment this week, and furthermore said that EU antitrust regulators now plan to drop all legal action against Ireland.

8) WayRay, a Zurich-based developer of holographic augmented reality technology and hardware — used in head-up displays that project images into a driver’s field of vision — has raised $80 million of funding, a Series C round led by Porsche, with Hyundai Motor, previous investor Alibaba Group, China Merchants Capital, JVCKENWOOD, and several sovereign wealth funds also participating.

9) German venture builder Rocket Internet has announced its financial results for the first half of 2018, showing a consolidated profit of €297 million across its properties. With a significant amount of money in the bank and “no significant financial debt,” Rocket Internet also decided to start a share buy-back program of up to €150 million or 5.5 million shares.

10) Blippar, the British AR startup that launched in 2011, has today announced the close of a $37 million financing led by Candy Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.

Bonus link: This December, with Atomico and Orrick, Slush will once again publish the annual State of European Tech report. Coming out for the fourth time, this year’s report will bring diversity and inclusion into focus, to highlight the importance of the issue at hand. Take the survey here.