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By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dick Costolo's decision to step down as Twitter Inc's chief executive last week failed to stem the weeks-long slide in the company's shares, but options traders appear to be betting on a near-term rebound. The stock has shed more than a third of its value since Twitter reported first-quarter results in April. On June 11, Costolo said he would resign as CEO under pressure from investors frustrated by the microblogging company's slow growth, but the move failed to prop up Twitter's shares.

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By Arshad Mohammed and Joseph Menn WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When a retired 51-year-old military man disclosed in a U.S. security clearance application that he had a 20-year affair with his former college roommate's wife, it was supposed to remain a secret between him and the government. The disclosure last week that hackers had penetrated a database containing such intimate and possibly damaging facts about millions of government and private employees has shaken Washington. The hacking of the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) could provide a treasure trove for foreign spies.

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China-linked hackers appear to have gained access to sensitive background information submitted by U.S. intelligence and military personnel for security clearances that could potentially expose them to blackmail, the Associated Press reported on Friday. In a report citing several U.S. officials, the news agency said data on nearly all of the millions of U.S. security-clearance holders, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and military special operations personnel, were potentially exposed in the attack on the Office of Personnel Management. It said more than 2.9 million people had been investigated for a security clearance as of October 2014.

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By Patricia Zengerle and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The legal authority for U.S. spy agencies' collection of Americans' phone records and other data expired at midnight on Sunday after the Senate failed to pass legislation extending their powers. After debate pitting Americans' distrust of intrusive government against fears of terrorist attacks, the Senate voted to advance reform legislation that would replace the bulk phone records program revealed two years ago by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Although the Senate did not act in time to keep the program from expiring, the vote was at least a partial victory for Democratic President Barack Obama, who had pushed for the reform measure as a compromise addressing privacy concerns while preserving a tool to help protect the country from attack.

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French media group Vivendi said on Friday it would book a 4.2 billion euro ($4.6 billion) pre-tax gain from the sale of Brazilian telecommunications company GVT, which would help it pay interim dividends. The company said it had also received a 12 percent stake in Telefonica Brazil's Vivo and would exchange 4.5 percent for 8.3 percent of Telecom Italia's ordinary shares in the coming weeks. “The closing of the sale of GVT and of the 20 percent interest in Numericable-SFR enables the Vivendi management board, in accordance with its commitment, to authorize in principle the payment of two interim ordinary dividends, each in the amount of 1 euro per share, in respect of 2015,” Vivendi said in a statement.

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A U.S. judge ordered Yahoo Inc to face a nationwide class-action lawsuit accusing it of illegally intercepting the content of emails sent to Yahoo Mail subscribers from non-Yahoo Mail accounts, and using the information to boost advertising revenue. In a decision late Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California said people who sent emails to or received emails from Yahoo Mail subscribers since Oct. 2, 2011 may sue as a group under the federal Stored Communications Act for alleged privacy violations. Holders of non-Yahoo Mail accounts accused Yahoo of copying and then analyzing their emails, including keywords and attachments, with a goal of creating “targeted advertising” for its estimated 275 million Yahoo Mail subscribers, in addition to detecting spam and malware

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John Malone's Charter Communications Inc struck a $56 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc, seeking to combine the third and second largest U.S. cable operators to better compete against market leader Comcast Corp. The Federal Communications Commission immediately served notice that it would closely scrutinize the deal, focusing not only on absence of harm but benefits to the public. Charter, in which Malone-chaired Liberty Broadband Corp owns about 26 percent, is offering about $195.71 in cash-and-stock for each Time Warner Cable share, based on Charter's closing price on May 20. A merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable, with other related deals, would create a company that controls more than 20 percent of the U.S. broadband market, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

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(Reuters) – Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd is cutting jobs across the world, the company said on Friday, as it consolidates its software, hardware and applications business. BlackBerry, which reported a 16.8 percent fall in quarterly revenue in March, had about 6,225 full-time employees as of Feb. 2015, according to its website. The company is reallocating resources to capitalize on growth opportunities and achieve profitability across all its business segments, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement.

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By Dan Levine and Lawrence Hurley SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has been locked in internal wrangling over what position to take in high profile litigation between two American technology giants, Google and Oracle, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. It faces an end-of-May deadline to decide whether to take sides in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that will have wide implications for the technology industry.     The case involves how much copyright protection should extend to the Java programing language. Oracle won a federal appeals court ruling last year that allows it to copyright parts of Java, while Google argues it should be free to use Java without paying a licensing fee. Google, which used Java to design its Android smartphone operating system, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc and electric battery maker A123 Systems are close to settling a legal dispute over claims that the smartphone and computer maker, which is also looking into building an electric vehicle, poached A123 employees to build a large-scale battery unit. A123, which makes batteries that are used in electric cars, sued Apple in February in Massachusetts federal court, claiming that around June 2014 Apple began aggressively poaching A123 engineers tasked with leading some of the company's most critical projects. Apple denied the claims. The Waltham, Mass. …