Webwire: Apple briefly most valuable again; O2 privacy gaffe

Apple fleetingly regains most valuable status

Apple's bumper fourth quarter results triggered a stock spike that briefly pushed the company past Exxon Mobil to again become the world's most valuable company.

USA Today

UK's O2 apologizes for privacy gaffe

UK operator O2 has apologized for a technical glitch which caused the phone numbers of its mobile users to be displayed to website operators when their phones were used to visit a page.

BBC News

LGE shares climb on hope of handset profit

Shares in LG Electronics hit a one-month high yesterday, thanks to speculation that the company's plans to turnaround its lossmaking handset unit may have succeeded.

Bloomberg

One in two Indian workers telecommute often

Over half of Indian workers, and 34% of Indonesians, frequently telecommute to work, according to a global survey. Worldwide, about one in five telecommute and nearly 10% work from home every day.

Jakarta Globe

APAC beating EU in digital economy: Verwaayen

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen believes the APAC region is well ahead of Europe and the US when it comes to building infrastructure needed to support the digital economy.

BusinessWeek

Don't Be Evil plugin re-orders Google results

Engineers from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have developed a browser plug-in, Don't Be Evil, which is designed to reorder Google search results as they would once have appeared before Google tweaked its formula to prioritize content from users' Google Plus social circles.

Los Angeles Times

McDonald's social campaign backfires

An attempt by fast food chain McDonald's to to encourage Twitter users to share stories about the chain backfired after users started posting of bad experiences, such as of insects and other objects found in the food.

Sydney Morning Herald

SAP bullish after Q4 profit surge

SAP is optimistic it will maintain sales growth in 2012 after a strong 4Q11 that saw the firm generate a profit of €1.2 billion ($1.57 billion) compared to the €434 million made in 4Q10. Revenue grew from €4.06 billion in 4Q10 to €4.5 billion in the recent quarter.

Wall Street Journal