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Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a rare appearance at a tech conference in Berlin that his girlfriend was talking at (GOOG)
Dan Taylor
Google cofounder Sergey Brin secretly attended a technology conference in Berlin last week.
The search engine billionaire visited the Tech Open Air conference — held at FunkHaus Berlin, once the broadcast headquarters for the German Democratic Republic (GDR) state radio — last Thursday and listened to a talk given by ClearAccessIP founder and CEO Nicole Shanahan, who is believed to be his girlfriend.
Brin also spoke on one of the conference's smaller stages, taking part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session that was attended by 20 people who happened to be around by chance, according to a source.
In addition, he attended a number of exclusive events for VIPs, the source said. VIP events on offer included a private dinner and a party co-hosted by SoundCloud cofounder Eric Wahlforss and his wife.
YouTube/Tech Open Air
Dan Taylor
The timing of Brin's Berlin visit is interesting given everything that's going on SoundCloud.
Music Business Worldwide reported in January that Google was mulling an acquisition of SoundCloud that was likely to be in the order of $500 million (£386 million).
It's unclear if Brin attended the SoundCloud party on Thursday, which took place at a venue called Jackie O Berlin, which is in some woods on the outskirts of the city.
However, he wasn't seen at the conference on Wednesday to listen to SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung explain the rationale for the latest job cuts at SoundCloud. It's possible he met Ljung separately though, as he was in Berlin for three days in total, according to a source.
A SoundCloud employee told Business Insider last week that SoundCloud made the job cuts "before they become redundant in an upcoming acquisition or merger."
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