A California judge last week dismissed charges against Patricia C. Dunn, former chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard, in a corporate spying case that gained national attention and prompted congressional hearings on protection of personal phone records.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Friday that it was withdrawing its application for a bank charter, which aroused widespread opposition from banks, lawmakers and consumer groups, and spurred debate within Congress and before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC was considering Wal-Mart's application to establish an industrial loan corporation, which is a limited-purpose bank for processing credit card and other payments.

Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire the online meeting company WebEx Communications for about $3.2 billion in cash, a takeover that furthers Cisco's push beyond its core market for networking gear and into the lucrative arena of business communications.

The acquisition has been approved by both boards and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, Cisco said. The total purchase price will be about $2.9 billion when factoring in WebEx's $300 million in cash on hand.

The nation's largest traditional grocer reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 36 percent to $384.8 million over the previous year, signaling an impressive gain, even when going head-to-head with the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

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