Taco Bell officials lose lawsuit over Chihuahua

A federal jury Wednesday ordered Taco Bell Corp. to pay $30.1 million to two men who claimed the fast-food chain stole their idea for the advertising campaign featuring a talking Chihuahua.

Thomas Rinks and Joseph Shields, both of the Grand Rapids area, sued Taco Bell in 1998, saying they pitched the idea for a character called “Psycho Chihuahua” more than a year before Taco Bell began airing the dog commercials in 1997. Taco Bell advertising executives, the men claim, made a verbal agreement to use their design.

Wichita

Raytheon wins contract

Flight Options awarded a five-year maintenance service agreement worth more than $400 million to Raytheon Corp.’s Wichita-based Aircraft Services unit.

Flight Options, a closely held provider of fractional shares in jet aircraft, said Raytheon Aircraft will provide infrastructure, parts, tooling, processes, fuel and systems support.

It was not known whether the deal would produce new jobs for the Wichita operations.

Merger

Palm Inc. to grab rival

Palm Inc., the leading maker of personal digital assistants, said Wednesday it plans to acquire challenger Handspring Inc., which was created five years ago by Palm’s founders.

The deal calls for the Silicon Valley rivals to merge after Palm completes its spinoff of PalmSource, the unit that makes the Palm operating system for handheld computers. The transactions are expected to be completed back-to-back in the fall, and the merged company will be renamed, the companies said.

Under the proposed terms, Handspring’s shareholders will receive 0.09 Palm shares — and no shares of PalmSource — for each share of Handspring common stock owned. Palm will issue approximately 13.9 million shares of Palm common stock to Handspring’s shareholders on a fully diluted basis.

Agriculture

Smithfield profits drop

Continued low prices for live hogs and fresh pork products left meat-packing giant Smithfield Foods Inc. with sharply lower earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter.

It reported net income of $5.1 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter that ended April 27, down 80 percent from $24.9 million, or 22 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.