Halliburton's Meeting Moved To Duncan

DUNCAN, Okla. (AP) _ Halliburton Company earned a record 2.4 billion dollars last year. <br/><br/>But its executives will forgo Texas-sized luxury next week when they open their annual shareholders meeting

Saturday, May 13th 2006, 5:16 pm

By: News On 6

DUNCAN, Okla. (AP) _ Halliburton Company earned a record 2.4 billion dollars last year.

But its executives will forgo Texas-sized luxury next week when they open their annual shareholders meeting -- not in a luxury Houston hotel -- but in the rural Oklahoma town of Duncan.

The city of 22,500 residents was where the Houston-based oil services and contracting Goliath was born.

Those attending the meeting at Duncan's convention center will forego will have the choice of spending the night in a Holiday Inn or the Chisholm Suites Hotel.

Halliburton says it moved its meeting to Duncan to honor its southern Oklahoma roots. But company critics accuse it of running to a prairie outpost to hide.

Halliburton's annual meetings have drawn 200 to 500 protesters in recent years.

The company, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has drawn criticism for its big government contracts, some awarded without competitive bidding. Its KBR unit provides support services for troops stationed in the Middle East.

It's not alone in taking big business to middle America's smaller places.

IBM recently held its annual meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Pharmaceutical house Pfizer met in Lincoln, Nebraska.