• 817 BIZ
  • Posts
  • 🦘Caterpillar buys Aussie company for $728M; FW Business Plan Competition awards $20k; East side Gateway 'PAC' is formed.

🦘Caterpillar buys Aussie company for $728M; FW Business Plan Competition awards $20k; East side Gateway 'PAC' is formed.

Plus, more bite-size news about business in Tarrant County.

Walmart has partnered with OpenAI to assist Walmart and Sam’s Club shoppers by learning and predicting needs, and to pay directly within ChatGPT. (Image: Walmart shipping containers in Fort Worth)

Texas is the first state to not use the American Bar Association for oversight of law schools. The Texas Supreme Court decided to take over and will decide which schools qualify graduates to take the Texas bar exam, moving away from relying on the ABA's accreditation process.

XO Halal, a subscription snack food importer, won the Fort Worth Business Plan Competition presented by Frost Bank. First place was worth $10k for the company founded by Wai Yan Htun. Second place and $6k went to Create + Collaborate, founded by Ricquel Archer. It enables and assists first-generation students to go to college. Third-place finisher was Fort Worth STEAM Academy, a public school founded by Nicholas Ditto for grades 6-8, starting in east Fort Worth in 2026. It won $4k. 

Denmark has committed $4.5 billion for additional Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, and “as something new," the acquisition will include Collaborative Combat Aircraft-type drones.

Tarrant County Commissioners awarded Center for Transforming Lives $2.3 million to provide critical rental and utility assistance to approximately 2,000 low-income households facing eviction, utility disconnection and homelessness.

Believe it or not: More than 700 runners competed in Denver’s free Taco Bell 50k ultramarathon, a 31-mile race requiring participants to complete food challenges at nine out of 10 Taco Bell locations along the course. Unsurprisingly, the race had a high “did not finish” rate.

Irving-based Caterpillar has a deal to acquire Australian technology firm RPMGlobal for $728 million, signaling the heavy machinery company's focus on mining. RPMGlobal, headquartered in Brisbane, provides mining software solutions, enabling miners to better manage assets, fleet and operational planning.

Global smartphone shipments rose 2.6% in the third quarter to 322.7 million units. Apple delivered its best third-quarter results with 58.6M units. Samsung matched the record accomplishment with shipments of 61.4M units.

PRIM Construction completed a 22,870-square-foot dealership for Four Stars Ford in Jacksboro. The store is based on Ford’s prototype design and has a service area that is 300% larger than the previous location. 

Parts of White Settlement Road may get a new name, according to the Fort Worth Report. City Council members will vote Oct. 21 on a proposed change of Westside Drive to "a significant portion” of the road, which would include the developing $1.7-billion Westside Village project. 

As China intensifies restrictions on rare earth exports, essential for electronics and electric vehicles, General Motors has ensured a stable supply. Since 2021, GM has advanced plans for U.S. rare earth magnet manufacturing, collaborating with VAC and MP Materials of Fort Worth on factories. In addition, it has secured a multi-year deal with Noveon Magnetics.

Dalfen Industrial acquired three Industrial Outdoor Storage properties in D-FW, including 10111 Harmon Road in north Fort Worth. The property is 1.96 acres and features a 7,000-square-foot building fully leased to Alpha Paving.

Nonprofit relief agency GRACE has opened an outlet store next to its donation station in Grapevine. The non-profit helps residents with food, clothing, financial assistance and other necessities. GRACE operates GRACEful Buys locations in Grapevine and Euless. Rebecca Cox is the GRACE CEO.

Gateway Park Action Coalition launched to advocate for and engage the public about the nearly 800-acre Gateway Park Master Plan, and ensure "that Fort Worth’s largest urban park becomes a world-class, accessible, and sustainable public asset." President of the group is Rick Herring, who can be reached at [email protected].

Notable and quotable: "Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages."

—Sam Houston (1793-1863), American general and statesman, also served as the sixth governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only individual to be elected Governor of two states

Despite predictions of a softer holiday season, Amazon plans to recruit 250,000 workers across its fulfillment and transportation networks, maintaining the same seasonal hiring level as the past two years. 

Southlake-based Sabre Corporation launched SabreMosaic Continuous Revenue Optimizer, an AI-driven solution that enables airlines to move beyond traditional fare classes and deliver continuous pricing recommendations for each shopping request.

Snippets:

  • Meta is bringing back local job listings on its Facebook Marketplace platform, featuring entry-level, trade and service industry employment. The jobs platform is for adults 18 and older.

  • Texas electric grid operators and regulators have ironed out new rules regarding data centers.

  • Seventeen statewide propositions will appear on the November 4 ballot. Here’s a rundown of what you might like to know in advance.

Significant stat: $2 million = How much Apple is offering security researchers who find bugs in the iPhone and Mac operating systems. The goal is to find any flaws that hackers could exploit.

Daily digit: $78 million = Amount raised for 3,500 local non-profits during North Texas Giving Day 2025, with more than 100,000 contributions, according to Communities Foundation of Texas.

Announcements: 

  • Tarrant County Democratic Party: Names Reyne Telles Executive Director. He has been vice president for a communications firm, a political TV reporter and part of the leadership team of former Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke. 

  • Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists: Gov. Greg Abbott appoints Rusty Branch of Fort Worth to the Board.

  • The Blum Firm: Adds Stuart Bumpas as Senior Counsel.

  • Balcom: Engages with Radiology Associates of North Texas as lead marketing partner to help the company grow awareness of its interventional and diagnostic radiology specialties.

  • J.O. Agency — Adds Gary Dodds as Marketing Strategist. 

  • Bourland, Wall & Wenzel: Hires associate attorney Ashley Tran. 

  • Digilant: Hires Maddy Spencer as Senior Media Strategist.

  • Vista Minerals: Promotes Debbie Romine Forester to Vice President Human Resources. 

  • University of North Texas: Police promote Derek Wilson to Sergeant. 

817 Biz is formatted for viewing on mobile devices. If this email doesn’t look right, click the link at top right. Some links may expire after initial posting or be paywall-protected.