Reuter wins state award

The Reuter Organ Co. on Friday received the first statewide award honoring unique manufacturers in Kansas.

The Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry presented its first Excellence in Manufacturing award to the company during a ceremony at Reuter’s manufacturing plant, 1220 Timberedge Road.

Terry Leatherman, a vice president with KCCI, said the awards program, which selects a different company each quarter, was designed to honor companies that are producing products in “unique and exciting” ways.

Criss Mayfield, above left, KCCI’s industrial council president, presented the award to Reuter president Albert Neutel, above right. The 50-employee company has been manufacturing pipe organs for schools and churches for the past 85 years.

Travel: Cruise lines to merge

P&O Princess Cruises PLC accepted a sweetened $5.4 billion takeover offer from Carnival Corp., signalling that months of jockeying by the world’s top three cruise companies might be nearing an end.

P&O Princess spent much of the past year fighting off Carnival’s approaches after agreeing to a “merger of equals” with rival U.S. cruise company, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

But P&O Princess chief executive Peter Ratcliffe said his company’s board had decided Miami-based Carnival’s latest offer was “financially superior” and that it was withdrawing support for the Royal Caribbean deal.

Aviation: Raytheon undecided about cutting more jobs

The president of Raytheon Aircraft Co. said that despite projections of another decline in deliveries next year, officials have not decided whether to lay off any workers.

“We will let our employees know the first minute any important decision is made,” company president Jim Schuster said Thursday.

Raytheon has lost hundreds of millions of dollars and laid off about 2,000 workers in the past few years, but corporate officials said the outlook is turning around.

The company operates a major manufacturing facility in Wichita.

Accounting practices: Cheney seeks dismissal of Halliburton lawsuit

Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton Co. have asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by changing accounting methods at the oilfield-services company.

Cheney was chairman and chief executive of the Dallas-based company when it changed its accounting to recognize some of the cost overruns on large construction projects as revenue, although customers sometimes disputed the costs.

Judicial Watch, a self-described government-watchdog group, charges that Halliburton’s accounting change overstated revenue from 1999 through 2001 by $445 million, pumping up Halliburton’s share price and costing investors millions when the stock declined this year.