Hewlett-Packard Co. (Palo Alto, CA) signed an agreement to acquire Scope Communications Inc. (Marlborough, MA), a privately held developer of hand-held network test equipment. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Following closing of the acquisition, HP expects to integrate Scope and its employees into its Service Test Div. in Westford, MA. The division is a new HP unit created to develop low-cost, small-format test tools for the communications market.