Also

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. won dismissal of a suit that accused the drug maker of misleading investors about the company’s optimism for a cancer drug. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York said Bristol-Myers didn’t mislead investors in late 2001 about its confidence in ImClone’s Erbitux cancer drug. Bristol-Myers paid $2 billion for a stake in ImClone Systems Inc. in September 2001.

* Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Drew Edmondson agreed to delay refiling state charges against Bernard J. Ebbers until the former WorldCom Inc. chief executive is tried in federal court in New York. That trial is set for November.

* Global sales of chips rose by a record 31% year-on-year in February as consumers and businesses snapped up computers and mobile phones, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

* Cablevision Systems Corp., the largest cable-television operator in the New York region, said it reached a new agreement to carry Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN sports network. A Cablevision spokesman said the contract was “long term” and declined to comment further.

* Bayer, the world’s second-largest maker of farm chemicals, has agreed to pay $45 million to settle a lawsuit by Louisiana crawfish farmers over a pesticide that allegedly killed scores of the fresh-water crustaceans. The settlement resolves five years of class-action litigation.

* Computer Sciences Corp. said federal officials have contacted the company for their inquiry into the accounting practices of Computer Associates International Inc. Investigators wanted information about a contract that the El Segundo-based company signed with Computer Associates in 1999, a Computer Sciences spokesman said.