Also

* Eastman Kodak Co. said it would buy printing technology firm Creo Inc. for about $980 million in cash to push more aggressively into commercial printing.

* Downtown Los Angeles residents, many of whom have moved to the city’s core as part of a residential boom, have a higher average income than the rest of the county, according to a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. The average annual income in downtown in 2003 was $52,332, compared with an average of $43,066 across the county.

* Cherokee Inc., a Van Nuys company that markets and licenses Cherokee brand casual clothing, said it had hired UBS Investment Bank to help explore alternatives, including a possible sale of the company.

* Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China’s biggest computer chip maker, has agreed to pay rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. $175 million to settle patent infringement and trade secret lawsuits filed in California and U.S. federal courts, the two semiconductor giants said. TSMC, based in Taiwan, had accused Shanghai-based SMIC of stealing chip-manufacturing processes.