HP and Gateway have agreed to settle their legal differences with a $47m payment, from Gateway to HP. The two firms fell out in 2004 over patent infringement allegations made by both companies against each other - both now have a license to use the other"s intellectual property.
The deal was announced just as a ban on the importation into the US of Gateway PCs containing the disputed technology came into force - an injunction placed on the company by the US International Trade Commission in August 2005.
Gateway said it will re-state its FY2005 results to account for the payment - it will knock $16.7m off what it made that year, knocking its net income down to $32.8m. But the settlement will save it $12m in anticipated legal costs during the current fiscal year.