McAfee Inc. has agreed to pay a US$50 million penalty and set up an anonymous ethics hot line where employees, customers and resellers can report unlawful behavior. The settlement ends a long-running investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into whether McAfee, formerly called Network Associates, properly accounted for a December 2000 change in the way it booked software revenue.

CA to buy systems software maker

Computer Associates International Inc. has agreed to buy application management software vendor Wily Technology Inc. for $375 million. Wily builds software that monitors the performance of applications and lets IT managers diagnose bottlenecks and other problems. Wily will become a division of CA's Enterprise Systems Management business unit.

Cisco acquisition passes U.S. test

Cisco Systems Inc. passed a critical milestone in its planned $6.9 billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta Inc. when the U.S. antitrust waiting period passed without regulators taking any action. The merger still needs the approval of antitrust authorities outside the U.S. The move is expected to boost Cisco's place in the video-on-demand and Internet video-streaming markets.