Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to know this Monday
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10 things in tech you need to know today
A European VC gets caught up in the fallout around sexism, SoundCloud says it's here to stay, and Amazon might be working on a messaging app.
Chance the Rapper.
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1. A prominent European VC, Fred Destin, has said "I am truly sorry" after an accusation of inappropriate behaviour towards a female founder. The founder, according to Bloomberg, said Destin had acted inappropriately during a party.
2. SoundCloud's CEO Alex Ljung has said the company is "here to stay" in a blogpost intended to quash rumours of a shutdown. Musician Chance the Rapper also tweeted his support for SoundCloud over the weekend after a phone call with Ljuing.
3. Several London councils have ordered Singapore bike-hire startup Obike to remove their bright yellow bicycles from the city's streets, after people left them in random places. Obike brought hundreds of dockless bikes to London, but didn't inform councils before leaving them on the streets for people to use.
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4. Snapchat is looking for adtech startups to acquire, and has already held talks with AdRoll. They are mostly after firms that can help demonstrate the efficacy of their ads.
5. Apple is blocking VPN-based adblockers from its App Store, and only allowing adblocking services that plug into Safari. Third-party adblocker Adblock was barred from submitting an update to Apple because it blocks ads inside apps.
6. Essential, the new smartphone startup headed up by Android founder Andy Rubin, has lost its top marketer before the phone has even launched. Vice president of marketing Brian Wallace left to become CMO of Will.i.am's i.am+ lifestyle brand.
7. Amazon is reportedly working on a rival to WhatsApp called Anytime. According to AFTV News, Amazon has been surveying its customers about a messaging app that lets you send GIFs, use filters, and is private and secure.
8. The venture firm partly responsible for ousting Uber CEO Travis Kalanick now wants to sell off some of its stake. Benchmark Capital was one of Uber's first investors, but is now working with the board to offload some shares to Softbank or another buyer.
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9. Major publishers are switching affections from Snapchat to Instagram, as the Facebook-owned platform makes it easier to reach a larger overseas audience and link to external sites. According to Digiday, part of the problem is that Snapchat keeps the overall messaging experience totally separate to the publisher experience.
10. A judge has sided with Google in its fight with the US government over revealing how much the company pays women. Federal judge Steve Berlin ruled to limit the amount of information Google has to give to the Department of Labour about its employees.
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