COMPANIES

Samsung has denied rumors about a potential buyout of Blackberry maker, Research in Motion after a technology blog reported the South Korean firm was interested in buying RIM.

Australian shares ended Friday on a strong note for their third successive week higher. Easing concerns about Europe's debt and more upbeat earnings from Wall Street boosted local optimism. At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 24.8 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 4,239.6, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 24.4 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 4,303.

New Zealand's State-owned Meridian Energy has shelved its plan to build a $2 billion wind farm in central Otago following a bad review.With up to 176 wind turbines, the $2- billion project on the Lammermoor Range would have been the biggest power project in the South Island since the 1980s, and it would have generated enough electricity for Christchurch and Dunedin combined and eventually the whole of the island, said reports.

Rolls Royce said on Thursday that it has implemented measures to correct the manufacturing errors seen on its engine components that nearly caused a Qantas Airways flight to explode while in mid-air in November 2010.

British actor Jude Law is among the individuals who received just compensation from the media empire of Rupert Murdoch's News Group as part of the settlement in the case involving email and phone hacking instigated by the editors and reporters of the now-defunct News of the World, lawyers and reports have confirmed.

Apple exporters are optimistic, but at the same time realistic on shipping to an Australia market open after 90 years, as reported by the New Zealand Herald.

Retailers' sentiments were confirmed by the latest sales indicator released on Friday by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which showed that the sector struggled to achieve sales targets last year. Nevertheless, although the numbers are disappointing, they revealed that with some creativity and technological savvy, more sales can be achieved.

In Fonterra’s latest online auction, where the average price increased and the winning price also hiked at US$3701 a tonne, the results bolstered the optimism of NZ economists.

Apple is credited for introducing the tablet computers to the world, but Samsung gave the world a choice. By comparing the iPad with the Galaxy Tab 7.0, it is easy to narrow down the similarities and differences between the two remarkable devices.

If 2011 was a bad year for Australian retailers, their losing streak would likely continue through 2012.

Research in Motion Ltd. will release the updated Playbook operating system in February that would include a new native calendar and contact applications, as well as better integration for E-mail, LinkedIn and Twitter. RIM is hoping the new update will lure developers and consumers to support its Playbook OS 2.0 but this update could be too late to reverse the Playbook's fortune.

Ford Motor Company, the second largest automaker company in the U.S. recently announced a recall of at least 539,000 vehicles worldwide in order to repair certain errors in the affected car models.

While its competitors either hold off or cut back new investments, Samsung Group boldly announced on Tuesday plans for more investments this year, estimated to reach more than $41 billion, reports said.

Jerry Yang built-up his name by transforming a start-up tech firm into a multi-billion dollar global company, becoming the toast of the tech world in so short a time, which lasted until Yahoo's gradual and eventual decline.

Australia's mining industry will continue to enjoy a boom in 2012 based on production reports that resource companies released this week. Output was particularly higher for iron ore and gold resources.

Australian travelers are expected to benefit from the drop in plane fares as more competition heats in the aviation industry with the offer of AirAsiaX daily trips from Sydney beginning April 2.

The South Australian Supreme Court overturned on Tuesday a ministerial approval given to Argonaut Resources (ASX: ARE) to drill for copper, gold and iron-oxide in parts of Lake Torrens and Andamooka Island.

Cavalier Corp.'s chief executive and managing director, Wayne Chung, is set to retire from his executive role at the company, while operations manager Colin McKenzie has been tapped to take on the lead role.

Aircraft manufacturer BAE Systems will taps its Australian unit to put in place an aerospace component manufacturing operation in Adelaide which would produce titanium parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Ports of Auckland workers warned against contracting jobs lest they will be compelled to leave the country, the Maritime Union says.

It was a case of 'video killed the radio star' scenario as personal computers, latest industry figures showed PCs continuing their gradual decline, no thanks to the rising dominance of mobile devices.

With a new CEO and a quadrupled budget, the New Zealand oil and gas industry is moving forward against growing opposition to modernized oil exploration, such as deep-sea drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

The final approval allowing Australia's Lynas Corp.'s rare earths facility to be fully operational is now caught in a thorny path of Malaysian national elections slated in March.

The Consumer Electronics Show is over and the only thing left to do is mop up the losers of the biggest electronics trade show of the year. Here are some gadgets and companies that made a poor showing at CES 2012.

Apple Inc.'s next generation iPad 3 is already in full production in China and is expected to go on sale on March.

Australian oil and gas producer Santos (ASX: STO) gave the approval to develop the $490-million Fletcher Finucane project off the northwest coast of Western Australia (WA).

Tech titan Apple has reported marked improvements on working environments of employees hired by the company's mostly Asian contractors to assemble its bestselling electronic devices. Nevertheless, there is still much needed to be done.

Apple Inc. suspended its sale of its new iPhone 4S in China Friday after irate shoppers pelted Apple's flagship Beijing store with eggs and fought with security guards in a desperate bid to get their hands on the new device.

Retailers from all over the country are looking through rose colored glass despite many online competitors threatening to lower sales this year. Sales expectations plummeted by 26 points (index of nine) as compared with the same time frame for the past year.