US telephone and internet service provider CenturyTel Inc. agreed to buy Embarq Corp. for $5.8 billion in stock, helping the phone company to almost quadruple its already existing 2.1 million phone lines.  Embarq, the former landline arm of Sprint Nextel Corp. which split in 2006, provides service to rural areas and smaller cities in 18 states across the US, and is the main telephone company for Las Vegas.   CenturyTel covers mainly rural areas of regions in the South and Midwest, from Louisiana to Minnesota, and also provides service to Colorado and the Northwest.

The company that will run the ski hills for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Intrawest ULC, completed a $1.7 billion refinancing deal, ending weeks of hearsay about the companyÔÇÖs financial health. ┬á One of the main venues for the Games, the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort, is what the leading destination-resort company in North America is best known for. ┬á Its existing lender group, Fortress Investment Group LLC bought Intrawest two years ago in a multi-billion dollar deal backed by a group of lenders.

People in teamsIn part five of his series on managing and leading people, Jon Minerich, Principal, Oliver Wight Americas, Inc., describes how to set up successful teams. Everyone, it seems, is talking about teams, teamwork, and team building. Smart CEOs know that teamwork is crucial to accomplishing their companyÔÇÖs strategic goals, and also that there is more to it than assembling a collection of individuals to work together.┬á  The concept of teams in business is not new, yet many companies still struggle to deploy them effectively.

By Thomas R. CutlerCompanies designing products for customers to their own specifications are part of a unique worldwide club of engineer-to-order (ETO) firms numbering 200,000-plus. Even firms that have been exclusively engaged in repetitive manufacturing are now increasingly finding profitable client demand for customization. Almost 90 percent of these unique one-of-a-kind manufacturers have annual sales of under $50 million and have yet to unify the key parts of the process into an integrated business information system.

Wabash National has made continuous improvement a way of life for its employees in recent years, and now the supply chain is getting the lionÔÇÖs share of the attention, as Keith Regan learns from the team leading the push to embrace change as a way to remain competitive In the first two years of its continuous improvement journey, Wabash National conducted some 375 different improvement events, many focused on making small improvements in operations.

Finding space for healthy growth┬áVanderbilt University Medical CenterÔÇÖs rising profile has put pressure on its central campus. Keith Regan learns about its creative solutions, including building around existing structures and reusing a suburban shopping mall for outpatient care. Founded in 1875, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has recently seen its national profile grow dramatically. US News & World Report recently ranked the center among the top 15 hospitals in the nation.

Moving┬átarget┬áThe city of Montreal is undertaking major initiatives to refresh its public transit system and increase public ridership. Jackie Beck reports on the plans of the Soci├®t├® de Transport de Montreal. For more than 40 years since it first opened in 1966, the metro has been an essential part of Montreal life. Downtown Montreal saw its first major expansion after the arrival of the metro, and its presence continues to be the cityÔÇÖs pride and joy.

The word ÔÇ£partnershipÔÇØ has been an integral part of the success of the MOX Project, which aims to design, build and operate a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, as Andrew Pelis learnsThe demise of the Cold War was not just a triumph for peace and security. The aftermath has seen the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which has opened up a range of new opportunities in Aiken, South Carolina.

Opportunity in the pipelineExpertise that Robert B. Somerville developed working on pipeline for the oil and gas market has applications in many other areas as well, Linda Seid Frembes learns. The increasing focus on energy consumption and energy independence has also put a spotlight on infrastructure projects. Investment in the worldÔÇÖs aging infrastructure has provided new opportunities for companies like Robert B. Somerville (RBS), a pipeline construction and installation company based in King City, Ontario.

Concrete┬ávalues┬áHard work, honesty and commitment are some of the core principles that have enabled the Riggs Companies to not only survive but prosper, Andrew Pelis learns from vice president Brian Davidson. Riggs Companies has quickly grown into one of the commercial concrete businesses in the Phoenix area of Arizona, with a set of virtues as true today as when the Riggs family first started out in 1993. The companiesÔÇÖ growth is tempered by the need to maintain quality with a ÔÇ£can-doÔÇØ attitude to ÔÇ£achieve and exceed even the most challenging