A year after Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency's mass surveillance programs, the major U.S. technology companies suffering from the fallout are uniting to shore up their defenses against government intrusion.

Twitter Inc said Wednesday it will acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices.

Boosting the adoption of messaging service WhatsApp in the United States and some other markets is proving difficult, co-founder Brian Acton said, but the company will still create substantial revenue for prospective parent Facebook Inc (FB.O).

As Alibaba prepares for what could be the biggest tech company IPO to date, the Chinese e-commerce giant has been counseling employees on how to deal with the roughly $41 billion they could unlock through a New York listing.

Japan's SoftBank Corp said on Thursday it will start selling human-like robots for personal use by February, expanding into a sector seen key to addressing labour shortages in one of the world's fastest ageing societies.

Microblogging platform Twitter Inc has been in talks with Berlin-based audio sharing website SoundCloud in its efforts to add a music service to its offering, the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the matter.

Hiring startup Gild has raised cash to help it tackle one of the U.S. technology sector's highest-profile challenges: the lack of diversity among its workers.

Business startup Zenefits has raised another $66.5 million from investors, months after its first capital-raising, following a pattern set previously by a handful of hot, young consumer companies that proved their worth to investors over a short span.

Kinaxis Inc trimmed the expected offer price of its initial public offering on Tuesday, in a sign that market demand for the Canadian software company's equity issue may not be as hot as originally expected.

Rogers Communications Inc, Canada's biggest wireless company, and Vodafone Group PLC, the global telecoms group, announced a new market agreement on Tuesday to broaden the services they offer each other's customers.

A well-known proponent of the electronic currency bitcoin agreed to pay nearly $51,000 to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges that he publicly offered unregistered shares in two Internet ventures, the regulator said on Tuesday.

The popular messaging app, Line, owned by Asia's Naver Corp, is preparing an initial public offering in the United States and Tokyo as soon as November, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people who were familiar with the matter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government could allow foreign direct investment in India's e-commerce sector as early as next month, paving the way for global online retailers such as Amazon to expand their business, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Chinese state media lashed out at Google Inc, Apple Inc and other U.S. technology companies on Wednesday, calling on Beijing "to punish severely the pawns" of the U.S. government for monitoring China and stealing secrets.

Turkey's telecoms regulator removed an official order blocking access to YouTube (GOOGL.O) from its website on Tuesday after the country's top court ruled last week that the ban was a breach of human rights.

Private equity firm KKR & Co LP said it would buy Internet Brands Inc, which operates CarsDirect and other websites, from private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity.

Apple Inc will let software developers include virtual-currency transactions in their applications, paving the way for new forms of money to appear on iPhones and iPads.

Facebook Inc is acquiring Pryte, a Finnish company that aims to make it easier for mobile phone users in under-developed parts of the world to use wireless Internet apps.

A U.S.-led international operation disrupted a crime ring that had infected hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe with malicious software used for stealing banking credentials and cyber extortion, the Justice Department said on Monday.

Fidelity Investments Contrafund, the largest mutual fund investor in Yahoo Inc, cut its stake in the Internet media company by 41 percent during the first four months of 2014, according to the fund's latest disclosure.

One of the founders of file-sharing website Pirate Bay has been arrested in southern Sweden to serve an outstanding sentence for copyright violations after being on the run for nearly two years, Swedish police said on Saturday.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) plans to launch the first smartphone based on its Tizen operating system in the third quarter, marking the company's latest bid to build up its own ecosystem and reduce reliance on Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) Android.

Satellite TV operator Dish Network said it would accept bitcoin payments from customers from the third quarter, joining companies such as Overstock.com Inc and Zynga Inc in accepting the digital currency.

In an unprecedented, three-year cyber espionage campaign, Iranian hackers created false social networking accounts and a bogus news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries, a cyber intelligence firm said on Thursday.

New Intel-based tablets from major brands will start hitting store shelves in June, and senior executives at the chipmaker hope the offerings will move it closer to an aggressive sales goal.

Chinese software companies such as Neusoft Corp and China National Software & Service Co Ltd (ChinaSoft) are picking up sales and expanding their marketing as China trades cyber spying accusations with the United States.

Google has taken the first steps to meet a European ruling that citizens can have objectionable links removed from Internet search results, a ruling that pleased privacy campaigners but raised fears that the right can be abused to hide negative information.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $120 million to Bay Area schools to help underserved communities in San Francisco, the two wrote in an essay to the San Jose Mercury News.

Turkish telecoms watchdog BTK said on Friday it had not yet received a ruling by Turkey's top court ordering the removal of a two-month block on video-sharing website YouTube

Intel Corp introduced a walking, talking robot on Wednesday made from 3D-printed parts that will be available to consumers later this year, if they are willing to assemble it with a kit that costs around $1,600.