Gateway Inc. has agreed to pay Hewlett-Packard Co. US$47 million to end a bitter two-year patent dispute between the two PC makers. As part of the settlement, the companies said they would sign a seven-year cross-licensing agreement. The settlement ends a battle that included three federal court lawsuits, three International Trade Commission investigations and one state court lawsuit.

Oracle Unveils Search Engine

Oracle Corp. unveiled a stand-alone enterprise search offering at Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo 2006 last week. Oracle Secure Enterprise Search 10g targets corporations seeking to ensure that only authorized staffers can access sensitive business information. The engine can be used to search Oracle databases, applications, file servers, repositories, Web portals and internal and external Web sites.

Cisco Closes Buy of Scientific-Atlanta

Cisco Systems Inc. last week completed its $7 billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta Inc. Cisco said the addition of the Lawrenceville, Ga.-based firm's offerings bolsters its goal of providing a complete data, voice, video and mobility infrastructure lineup. Scientific-Atlanta and its CEO, Jim McDonald, will become part of Cisco's Routing and Service Provider Technology Group.