Business news for Mon, 31 Dec 2007 & with word subsidiaries. 3 news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Motorola Inc. and Metrologic Instruments Inc. have reached an agreement that settles all outstanding patent infringement disputes between the two companies and their respective subsidiaries, Motorola said Monday. As a part of the agreement, the companies have entered into a patent cross-license for a limited term in the field of barcode scanning and mobile computing. The specific terms of the settlement are confidential.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, a subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange , will be known as ICE Futures Canada, effective Jan. 1, IntercontinentalExchange said Monday. The name change is in line with ICE's other futures subsidiaries, ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Futures Europe, the exchange operator said.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Merrill Lynch on Monday completed a previously announced deal with Aegon , where it's selling its life insurance unit for $1.25 billion in cash. Aegon's Transamerica companies will continue to supply insurance and investment products, including offering the flagship Merrill Lynch Investor Choice Annuity product through the acquired Merrill Lynch subsidiaries. Merrill Lynch expects to record a gain on sale during the fourth quarter of 2007 and anticipates the transaction to be slightly accretive to earnings per share and to have a positive effect on return on equity in 2008 after redeployment of proceeds. Aegon expects the acquisition to add scale to its existing business and to have a marginally positive effect on earnings per share.