Lu said the company plans to add 2,000 staff this year to boost its cloud computing, sales and customer service. It has around 25,000 employees currently, he said.

The once-frosty relations between Beijing and Taipei have thawed since China-friendly Kuomintang took over Taiwan’s government in 2008. Among the business ties between the two sides on the telecom front, Chunghwa Telecom agreed to build an undersea cable, connecting Taiwan and China across the Pacific, with China Telecom Corp.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chunghwa-telecom-to-expand-workforce-by-8-in-2012-2012-02-04

Hirtler-Garvey has been a member of the youth-focused apparel retailer’s board since August 2005 and has served as chairman of the board’s audit committee as well as the company’s lead independent director. She most recently served as the chief risk executive for Ally Financial Inc. and has held several management positions at Bank of America Corp. (BAC).

Geiger, who also resigned as a member of the board, became the president and chief executive officer of Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. in November. Prior to that, Geiger served as Aeropostale’s chairman and chief executive from August 1998 until February 2010.

Aeropostale, which operates children’s and teen retail chains, saw its stock slump last year as its girls’ business failed to resonate with shoppers and it saw stiffer competition from its teen rivals, including Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), which has become more promotional.

In November, Aeropostale Inc. reported its fiscal third-quarter profit fell 59% as the company booked sharply higher input costs, though earnings topped the its raised forecast.

Shares closed at $16.64 and were unchanged after hours. The stock is up 9.1% year to date.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aeropostale-taps-hirtler-garvey-to-chair-board-2012-02-03

Last month, India’s cabinet approved the proposal by Disney–which currently owns 50.28% of UTV Software–to buy out other shareholders. Walt Disney reiterated Tuesday it will delist UTV Software, which it said would allow it to integrate UTV’s current operations into the company.

Disney Chairman Andy Bird said increasing the company’s reach in international markets was a cornerstone of its growth strategy.

“This acquisition expands our footprint significantly and allows us to more effectively build, monetize and brand multiplatform franchises, and deliver a rich library of content to the world’s second largest population,” he said.

The company said it would produce both UTV and Disney-branded local films.

UTV is also a major television producer in India with six owned channels and also has a mobile-gaming business.

Disney shares closed Tuesday at $38.90 and weren’t active after hours.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-agrees-to-buy-out-indias-utv-software-2012-01-31

QuamTel was founded in January 1996 to deliver managed pre-paid global communication products and services. Through its subsidiaries WQN and DataJack, the Company markets to individuals and businesses with a specific focus on international populations in the United States and Canada who want an easy and cost-effective way to communicate with family, friends and colleagues overseas as well as to the general consumer and business populations who cannot or do not want to be locked into long-term contracts for telecommunications services.

QuamTel concentrates its marketing efforts on customers who prefer or need to pre-pay for mobile data, International calling and global VoIP services. The Company’s no-contract, no-credit check policy allows it to service a wide spectrum of consumers and business customers while providing an easy and economical way to use and purchase those services without sacrificing quality. QuamTel also focuses on developing proprietary technologies that control and manage associated communication devices for both carriers and consumers.

QuamTel was the first company to transition calling cards from a simple, static card with no value-added services to a feature-rich, e-commerce-based calling account where the consumer has the power to view account features such as call history, purchase history, call details and more. In addition, QuamTel was the first calling card company to introduce automatic number identification (ANI) which eliminates the need for users to enter a PIN number, making calling faster and easier.

QuamTel developed its proprietary QuamTel Application Network (QAN), a next-generation e-commerce sales and service platform that has been designed to dramatically increase the quality and value of the telecommunications services it provides to both retail and wholesale customers. This plug-n-play platform allows QuamTel to quickly and more easily create new features and functionality that add substantial revenue streams, such as toll-free services, global international voice-over-internet services and country-specific celebrity branded international communication sites. Its modular application architecture creates a highly flexible and scalable development environment that provides easy integration of newly acquired companies like Datajack, Inc. and products and brands such as 800.com.

In addition to its consumer and business-to-business products and services, QuamTel also offers its portfolio of sophisticated, user-friendly telecommunications products to third parties utilizing cloud computing and delivering the product as Software as a Service (SaaS). The object-oriented architecture of the QuamTel Application Network greatly reduces the time-to-market normally associated with new product and service offerings. In addition to telecommunications, our newly developed e-commerce sales and support modules have also been made readily available to wholesale customers. These wholesale clients have full control to host one of our many customized web portals and associated web services anywhere in the cloud and communicate directly with QuamTel’s robust back-end transactional processing system. This sophisticated e-commerce system not only enhances customer service and provides additional revenue streams, but it has also created more robust integration with Google ad-word campaigns, resulting in deeper market penetration through more effective and cost-efficient outbound marketing for QuamTel’s subsidiaries and brands.

The QuamTel Application Network is the latest in a series of dynamic moves by QuamTel and its key subsidiaries, DataJack and WQN, all designed to dramatically enhance what is already the cornerstone in the next-generation internet-based telecommunications and data transfer technology systems.

SOURCE: http://www.quamtel.com/cfiles/investors.cfm

Samsung, the world’s largest technology firm by revenue, said its net profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to KRW4 trillion (US$3.57 billion) from KRW3.42 trillion a year earlier. In the third quarter, Samsung reported a net profit of KRW3.44 trillion.

The result was lower than the average KRW4.12 trillion net profit forecast in a poll of six analysts.

Samsung’s new revenue generators, such as high-end organic light-emitting diode displays and mobile processing semiconductors, cushioned the impact of a continued profit squeeze at the company’s liquid crystal display and computer memory chip businesses. The deal to sell Samsung’s hard disk drive business to U.S.-based Seagate Technology Inc. for $1.4 billion and the reversal of some provisions on royalties to Microsoft Corp. for Samsung’s Android-based smartphones and tablets also boosted income in the fourth quarter.

The firm’s operating profit and sales were in line with the company’s guidance issued earlier this month. Operating profit rose 75.8% to a record KRW5.3 trillion, from KRW3.01 trillion a year earlier, while sales rose 13% KRW47.3 trillion, from KRW41.87 trillion. Samsung had forecast a consolidated operating profit of between KRW5.0 trillion and KRW5.4 trillion on sales of between KRW46 trillion and KRW48 trillion.

Analysts said conditions in the global technology industry will remain challenging this year due to the lingering uncertainties over the global economy and Europe’s debt troubles, but the electronics giant’s earnings momentum will remain robust as its brisk sales of smartphones will continue to drive sales of its components.

“Samsung’s operating profit will decrease to about KRW4.48 trillion in the first quarter due to the traditionally slower selling season, but will rebound from the second quarter as smartphone sales growth will continue, which will help strengthen the synergies between the company’s set products and components,” Solomon Investment & Securities said in a report.

For the full year in 2011, Samsung posted a net profit of KRW13.73 trillion on record sales of KRW165 trillion.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsung-profit-up-17-on-record-smartphone-sales-2012-01-26

Harvey had been chairman and chief for the last six years, having worked at the utility company and its predecessor for 25 years.

Alliant named Chief Operating Officer Patricia L. Kampling to become chief executive and chairman after he retires. She joined the company in 2005, most recently serving as operating chief and financial chief and treasurer before that.

Before joining Alliant, Kampling spent more than 20 years in various finance, regulatory and engineering positions at Exelon Corp. EXC +0.33% .

Recently, results at Alliant–an electric and natural-gas utility centered in the upper Midwest–have been uneven results because of tepid demand for power and low gas volume. In its latest quarterly results, profit fell 18% on lower electric revenue despite a revenue jump in its nonregulated business.

Shares were up nine cents at $42.99 after hours. Through the close, the stock has risen 15% in the last year, better than the market at large.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/alliant-energy-ceo-to-retire-in-march-2012-01-21

The projected expenditures include roughly $300 million of sustaining capital and $700 million of funds aimed at improving growth and productivity.

The coal and iron-ore producer’s earnings have been soaring in recent quarters as both sales volume and prices climb. Cliffs has said it is looking to consolidate its foothold in Asian markets as part of a plan to push its share of revenue from international sales above 50%.

On Thursday, Cliffs said it will spend $60 million in the U.S. to extend the life of its Empire iron ore mine to 2015, among other projects.

In eastern Canada, the company plans to spend $470 million boosting iron ore production at a major mine, with an additional $45 million earmarked for port and rail upgrades. Cliffs plans to spend $40 million on capacity expansion in Western Australia.

The company also expects to spend about $50 million on growing production of steelmaking coal from its mines in West Virginia.

Cliffs plans to start production at a chromite deposit in northern Ontario in 2015. A recent study of the area led the company to expand its output estimate to 1 million tons of chromite ore on top of the 600,000 tons of ferrochrome expected from the site.

Shares closed at $72.03 and were inactive after hours. The stock is off 18% over the past year.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cliffs-natural-resources-outlines-1b-capex-plan-2012-01-19

Shares surged 9.7% to $36.46 after hours as the company also predicted an upbeat second-quarter profit of 51 cents to 58 cents, excluding any restructuring charges, with revenue between $550 million and $580 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting 51 cents and $548 million, respectively.

Plexus’s earnings have slid for the past three quarters as weak end-market demand prevents some customers from expanding their manufacturing operations. The company provides mechanical and electronic products to makers of everything from industrial equipment to electronics, leaving it indirectly vulnerable to broader weakness in consumer demand.

Margins still improved in the latest quarter after the company’s engineering solutions group delivered better-than-expected earnings. Chief Financial Officer Ginger Jones also pointed to positive results from a recent inventory disposition.

The company has cautioned that volatile customer demand will make it difficult to predict revenue growth this year, though orders from new customers have helped bolster its top line. Major brands like Juniper Networks Inc. JNPR +1.96% and Coca-Cola Co. KO -0.13% are among the company’s biggest clients.

Plexus grew its manufacturing base earlier this month when a Malaysian subsidiary of embedded computing company Kontron AG agreed to transfer most of its inventory, equipment and employees. Plexus expects the deal, which includes a payment of about $30 million to $35 million, to modestly add to earnings this fiscal year.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Plexus reported a profit of $17.9 million, or 51 cents a share, down from $25 million, or 61 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales fell 6.4% to $529.7 million.

The company’s revised guidance earlier this month called for a profit between 48 cents and 50 cents a share, with $525 million to $530 million in revenue.

Gross margin edged up to 9.8% from 9.7%.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/plexus-earnings-fall-29-on-weaker-sales-2012-01-18

“Samsung has never reviewed and never will consider plans to take over RIM,” said a Samsung Electronics spokesman.

The comment from the world’s largest technology firm by revenue came after the technology blog Boy Genius Report, which cited anonymous sources, on Tuesday said RIM and Samsung had engaged in talks and that RIM was considering selling all or part of the company to Samsung. A RIM spokeswoman declined to comment.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/samsung-never-reviewed-plans-to-take-over-rim-2012-01-17

Olympus avoided automatic delisting from the TSE when it filed its earnings by a Dec. 14 deadline. But shares in the scandal-hit maker of cameras and endoscopes had remained under the risk of delisting as the TSE examined whether the company’s fraudulent accounting had “a material impact” on its shares.

The report comes after the Nikkei newspaper reported last week that the TSE is likely to designate Olympus’s stock as “on alert,” whereby the company must file annual progress reports on efforts to improve corporate governance and information disclosure.

SOURCE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tokyo-bourse-to-keep-olympus-shares-listed-report-2012-01-17