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Another Cruise ship teminal bringing more cruise ships and more economic diversity to the Greater Houston economy.
Galveston already enjoys the Liberty of the Seas, but now the city's port is also home to the Adventure of the Seas - a fellow Royal Caribbean International cruise ship and one of the two "largest cruise ships to sail from Galveston," port authorities said.
Adventure of the Seas, capable of hosting 3,800 guests and nearly 5,000 people in total, will host short, seasonal cruises to Caribbean ports of call, according to a Port of Galveston release.
File: Adventure of the Seas now calls Galveston its home port.
Courtesy Royal Caribbean International
Adventure of the Seas is Royal Caribbean's latest investment in Galveston, where it is building a $125 million cruise terminal to open in 2022. The new terminal will allow Royal Caribbean to relocate its behemoth 6,780-guest Allure of the Seas cruise ship to Galveston.
Today we have two Houston Universities ranking number 1 in their respective categories for Entrepreneurial Schools of business, along with two entrepreneurial businesses that are making acquisitions forming additional economic diversity.
The Princeton Review listed the University of Houston’s Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship as the No. 1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the country. The program, within the C.T. Bauer College of Business, has been at the top for the past two years.
At Rice, its Jones Graduate School of Business ranked No. 1 for graduate entrepreneurship programs. It’s the third year in a row the school has taken the No. 1 spot, but it’s ranked near the top of the list numerous times.
Houston-based Cart.com is continuing its rapid growth with another acquisition in California.
The e-commerce company expanded its footprint in the Golden State with the acquisition of Carlsbad, California-based 180Commerce, which assists brands with growing their businesses on online marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart and others. 180Commerce was founded in 2016 by leaders from Amazon footwear reseller Shoe Metro, which was acquired by shoe retailer DSW Inc. that year.
The acquisition of 180Commerce complements Cart.com's capabilities in advertising strategy, content creation, analytics, inventory planning, customer service and more. The company's full team of 12 is joining the ranks of Cart.com.
The company that owns the Typhoon Texas water parks in Katy and Austin is adding two 20-plus-acre water parks in the Las Vegas area to its portfolio.
Houston-based Pyek Group, formerly Typhoon Texas Management Group, has agreed to enter into a partnership with a newly formed Nevada-based company to own and operate Cowabunga Bay and the currently named Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas.
A Houston based battery storage and alternative energy company is recognized as a leader in its field and scores a $400 million cash infusion adding to the economic diversity of the Greater Houston economy.
Houston-based battery storage company Broad Reach scores cash infusion
Workers install utility-scale batteries at the Broad Reach Power project in Odessa. A New York-based asset management firm has acquired a 50 percent stake in Broad Reach, which is headquartered in Houston.
Broad Reach / Broad Reach
New York-based asset management firm Apollo has acquired a 50 percent stake in Broad Reach Power, a utility-scale battery company headquartered in Houston.
The deal, announced Monday, will allow local venture capital firm EnCap to retain 50 percent and will see both funds invest an additional total of $400 million into Broad Reach to help the company continue to expand.
To date, Broad Reach has about 1,400 megawatt hours of storage assets in operation or under construction — enough to power about 462,000 homes for one hour. Of its 11 storage projects, nine are in Texas, including six in the Houston area. Additionally, it controls about 21,000 megawatts of wind and solar projects nationally — enough to power about 4.2 million Texas homes on a hot summer day.
A Houston based software firm aquires a Miami based firm increasing revenues and headcounts which in turn contributes to the economic diversity of the Greater Houston economy.
Houston-based software company Pros Holdings Inc. (NYSE PRO) acquired Miami-based fare marketing platform EveryMundo LLC in a cash-and-stock deal.
Pros, which develops software-as-a-service products for digital shopping and selling experiences, is paying about $80 million in cash at closing, subject to certain adjustments, the firms announced Nov. 30. Pros will also deliver $10 million in stock in the future, with 50% issued in 12 months and the 50% issued in 24 months, subject to certain conditions in each case.
EveryMundo develops fare marketing technology offerings for direct channel growth and customer acquisition for brands, including dozens of airlines worldwide. Founded in 2006, EveryMundo has worked with brands like American Airlines and Greyhound to drive customer engagement and eliminate the need for intermediaries like agents, aggregator sites and other marketplaces, the firm said.
Pros is one of the largest software technology companies headquartered in the Houston market. The firm develops artificial intelligence-powered software for quote pricing, revenue management, digital sales and marketing, and more. Pros also develops a suite of products targeted for the airline industry, including real-time pricing and sales optimization.
Pros reported total revenue of $252.42 million during fiscal year 2020. Last year, the technology firm moved its corporate headquarters from Midtown to the Kirby Collection, a mixed-use development at 3200 Kirby Drive. Pros leases approximately 118,000 square feet of office space in the Kirby Collection, the firm said in its latest annual report. Pros also has office locations in the U.K., France, Germany, Bulgaria, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. As of Dec. 31, 2020, Pros had 1,403 full-time personnel, including 1,235 employees and 168 outsourced workers, according to the annual report.
Two Houston area companies have been contracted by NASA to build commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, colonizing space and adding to the economic diversity of the greater Houston economy.
A Houston-area company is among those tapped by NASA to design commercial space stations
Pictured is a rendering of the Starlab space station.
Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin / Lockheed Martin,Nanoracks,Voyage
NASA is providing $415.6 million to three companies, including one based in the Houston area, that are designing successors to the aging International Space Station.
The agency announced Thursday that it selected projects led by Webster-based Nanoracks; Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin; and Dulles, Va.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. The money will be used through 2025 for the early design and development of commercial stations that would orbit the Earth.
After the first phase, NASA will select stations from this group and possibly others to send its astronauts for training and to conduct science investigations and technology demonstrations. It would pay the commercial companies for these services, ideally being one of many customers.
Nanoracks’ commercial space station, made in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks’ parent company Voyager Space (where Manber is president of international and space stations), is called Starlab. The Starlab space station would launch in 2027 and be focused on research, technology demonstrations and in-space manufacturing. Its use of both sturdy metal and more compact inflatable components means Starlab would require just one launch to get into orbit. The ISS was built over many space shuttle missions.
NASA is providing $160 million for the Nanoracks-led space station.
The three space stations were selected from 11 proposals. Though the agreements announced Thursday aren’t NASA’s first commercial space station contracts. In January 2020, NASA announced $140 million for Houston-based Axiom Space to develop a commercial station that will begin its life attached to the International Space Station — and then separate to become its own free-flying station once ISS retires.
A concept illustration of Intuitive Machines' Nova-C class moon lander, which has been chosen for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payloads Services program.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines will expand its footprint at the Houston Spaceport as part of its effort to become the first private U.S. company to land a spacecraft on the moon.
The company was the first tenant announced for the Spaceport, leasing 9,635 square feet in the Houston Aerospace Support Center located at 13150 Space Center Blvd., according to Houston City Council documents. There, Intuitive Machines has been developing and testing its lunar lander for deployment on the moon.
Based on its initial growth in aerospace operations, Intuitive Machines determined it needed to expand its operations at the Houston Spaceport with a new 125,000-square-foot facility on a 12.5-acre plot.
Once construction is completed, Intuitive Machines will move its operations from the Houston Aerospace Support Center to the new facility. Intuitive Machines said the larger facility will allow it to double the number of employees working for the company from 120 to 250.
NASA picks Intuitive Machines for mission to visit a moon swirl
The mission will investigate a mysterious lunar swirl that could be rich in mining resources.
An image taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Reiner Gamma swirl.(Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
NASA once again selected a Houston-based company to launch a shipment of lunar science equipment, this time in 2024.
Intuitive Machines will send four investigations to the moon in 2024 as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to support human landings under the Artemis program, according to a Nov. 17 agency statement.
Intuitive's Nova-C lander is expected to touch down at Reiner Gamma, a so-called "lunar swirl," which is a bright feature tens of miles across that sometimes appears in groups. These magnetic features cThe new $77.5 million task order follows two other Intuitive Machines-led missions. The Houston-based company's initial delivery, set for early 2022, will touch down near Vallis Schröteri, the largest valley on the moon. Later in 2022, Intuitive Machines will send the ice-drilling NASA PRIME-1 mission to the moon's Shackleton crater in 2022.ould be rich in mining resources. NASA picks Intuitive Machines for mission to visit a moon swirl | Space
Also Update on the quoted story above:
Intuitive Machines breaks ground on lunar operations center at Houston Spaceport
Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines has broken ground on a $40 million lunar operations center at the Houston Spaceport.
It will consist of a 110,000-square-foot facility for offices, mission control rooms and production space as well as a separate 5,000-square-foot propulsion test facility.
“We’ll have two large control rooms, and as many as six back-shop areas that we can control from,” he said. “So it's just a significant increase in capability for us to meet the growing demand.”
The company plans to grow its workforce from about 150 currently to 250 in the new center, Fischer said.
Fischer said he believes the Spaceport and the space innovation that will occur here will help Houston remain Space City for the long-term future.
“We are extremely proud to be a part of that community and to be early adopters and the first movers in the establishment of what we feel will be a very special place in the future of Texas and the United States and really humanity,” he said.
Big loss for Houston. I really think they're going to be a future tech giant and could've served as flagship company for Houston's tech scene. Really wish the Ion or GHP folks could've made a case to keep them around.
Big loss for Houston. I really think they're going to be a future tech giant and could've served as flagship company for Houston's tech scene. Really wish the Ion or GHP folks could've made a case to keep them around.
This is certianly not good news but maybe not as bad as it would appear on the surface.
"Tariq will remain at the Houston office, along with the company's chief strategy officer and chief of staff. Cart's chief innovation officer, chief financial officer and head of marketing will be in the Austin office. Cart also has offices in Los Angeles, Europe and Asia. It plans to open offices in Amsterdam and Poland in the first quarter of 2022, Tariq said."
This is certianly not good news but maybe not as bad as it would appear on the surface.
"Tariq will remain at the Houston office, along with the company's chief strategy officer and chief of staff. Cart's chief innovation officer, chief financial officer and head of marketing will be in the Austin office. Cart also has offices in Los Angeles, Europe and Asia. It plans to open offices in Amsterdam and Poland in the first quarter of 2022, Tariq said."
Right. Tariq is a UH and Rice Grad... feels like his DNA is here in Houston. Also, I loved how the article ended with the paragraph on intentionally hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce. That's the Houston influence right there...
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