Austin-based Silicon Labs said Thursday that it has named interim CFO and board member Bill Bock as President. The firm also said it has named John Hollister, currently Vice President of Business Development, as Senior Vice President and CFO. Bock has been on Silicon Lab's board since 2000. After a number of roles, he retired in 2011, but returned as interim CFO earlier this year. Silicon Labs is a developer of analog and mixed signal integrated circuits.

Dallas-based colocation provider CoreXchange reported this week that web hosting provider ServerHub has selected the company's Dallas data centers as part of an expansion in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Financial impact of the move was not disclosed. ServerHub says it has customer in over 120 countries, providing dedicated serer, cloud-based virtualization services, and infrastructure-as-a-service. ServerHub is based in Nevada, with its other data centers in PHoenix, Arizona.

Dalas-based government management software developer Tyler Technologies said this week that it has signed a contract with Parker County, Texas. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. According to Tyler Technologies, Parker County will implement its Odyssey court case management product, under a five year software-as-a-service agreement. Parker County has a population of approximately 117,000.

Plano-based Eltek, the developer of high efficiency power supplies and solar power inverters, said this week that it has signed on a New York reseller. Eltek said that Empire Clean Energy Supply will stock its Eltek THEIA HE-t solar inverters, which are used in solar photovoltaic installations for converting solar power into usable AC energy. Eltek said Empire Clean Energy will be its main business development support for both Long Island and the New York Metro region.

Online coupon site RetailMeNot is in a major push to encourage consumers to attend movies this Memorial Day, and is giving away thousands of coupons worth $7 of movie tickets. The Austin-based company said that it is looking to help drive "deal-seeking movie buffs" to U.S. theaters by offering its coupons, which will be given out on a first-come, first serve basis. The company also is awarding give trips to Hollywood as part of the promotion. RetailMeNot did not say which movie chains will be accepting the coupons, however, the site frequently inks exclusive coupon deals from different companies for its promotions.

Plano-based telecommunications design and engineering company Goodman Networks said Wednesday that it has acquired Multiband Corporation, a provider of DIRECTV installation and home services. Goodman Networks said it will pay approximately $116M in cash, or approximately $3.25 per share for publicly traded Multiband. Multiband is based in Minneapolis. Goodman is being advised by Jeffries LLC, Creduit Suiise, and Haynes and Boone, LLP in the deal; Multiband is being advised by Craig-Hallum Capital Group, LLC, as well as Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.

In what can only be good news for Austin-based SpareFoot and its online marketplace for self-storage, the company said it has commissioned a survey that shows that one in six American adults moved within the past 12 months. The startup released the survey in conjunction with "National Moving Day", which it says is the day after Memorial Day, the busiest days of the year for moving. The self-storage industry gets a huge boost in its business right after Memorial Day, as college students head back home from school, families pack up and move as the school year ends, and people are more active buying and selling homes. SpareFoot said that the day after Memorial Day has been known as "Crazy Tuesday" for years. SpareFoot had Princeton Survey Research Associates International run its survey, which sampled 3,004 adults in the continental United States. Among other tidbits from the survey: 57 percent of those moving relocating to homes just 25 miles away or less; the most common reason for a move (18 percent) was to move to a bigger home; and the second most common move was for work (15 percent).

In the future, will food come out of a machine, printed just like you print your documents? It might be, if an Austin company's technology advances. NASA said Thursday that it has provided funding to Austin's Systems and Materials Research Corp., which is developing a 3D printer which--instead of plastic or metal parts and prototyped mechanical items--prints edible food. NASA is funding the company for a possible mission to Mars, but Systems and Materials Research's technology could possibly make it to the commercial market. The idea is that SMRC can use powered ingredients -- protein, carbohydrates, and other raw materials--and "print" them in 3D layers into food following a recipe in a computer. NASA is providing $125,000 to the company.

Austin-based SolarWinds, the developer of IT management software, said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire N-able Technologies, a Canadian developer of cloud-based remote monitoring and management software. SolarWinds said it would pay $120M in cash for N-able. N-able's cloud-based software is used by managed service providers to manage their "lights out" environments.

Austin-based Postmaster, which develops simple, programming APIs for connecting into Fedex, UPS, and USPS, and helps to manage a consistent way to handle shipment notifications, tracking, address validation, and more, has raised $600,000. The firm said the funding was led by Capital Factory, Cloud Power and Zelkova Ventures, and a consortium of angels. Postmaster, which was part of TechStars Cloud in San Antonio, announced the funding along with a partnership with regional carrier Lonestar Overnight. The company said the funding will go to crow its team, build out its service, and scale up the company.

Austin-based Open Labs, which develops the StageLight music creation software and related NeKo and MiKo music hardware, has raised $800,000 in a seed funding, the firm disclosed Tuesday. The funding came from music performer Timbaland. Timbaland is a record producer, songwriter, and rapper. The two have had a long relationship; Open Labs has a number of hardware keyboards it has been producing branded with Timbaland over the past few years.

In a move specifically designed to bolster the link between Silicon Valley and the Silicon Hills, air carrier Virgin America said Tuesday evening that it has launched a new, daily roundtrip service between Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and San Francisco International. According to Virgin America, the new daily flight between AUS and SFO is specifically designed to connect the tech community flying between San Francisco and Austin. Virgin America is known for its tech- and business-friendly focus on early adopters, offering up Wi-Fi, power outlets and other amenities to passengers.

As part of Virgin America's launch of its nonstop flights, Virgin said it featured an in-flight, acoustic performances of Austin's The Bright Light Social Hour on its inaugural flight from SFO to AUS, which it also streamed online. Fares between the cities start at $79.

Virgin America also announced a partnership with Austin's Silvercar, the car rental startup, saying that it will provide frequent flyer points to its members who use Silvercar for their rentals.

Grapevine, Texas-based videogame retailer GameStop told its rewards members today that it is planning pre-orders for the new Microsoft Xbox One System and games. The company did not give details dates, but invited members to sign up for its Xbox One First to Know List Tuesday afternoon, so that they can receive details on titles, trade and pre-order details, and other offers from the company. GameStop has not yet started accepting reservations on the brand new platform. Microsoft unveiled the details of the new gaming platform on Tuesday. Xbox One includes a Blu-ray player, Wi-Fi connections, HDMI support, and ability to switch between live TV, video games, and music.

Austin-based SpareFoot is again lending a hand to the latest victims of a nearby tragedy -- this time, in the Oklahoma City area. The online, self-storage marketplace said it will donate a free month of storage to businesses, families and individuals who were affected by the Oklahoma City area tornadoes. SpareFoot said it will cover up to $100 for the rental of a storage unit within a 50-mile radius of Oklahoma City, OK, for customers who move their items into a unit by June 21st. The offer is the second the company has made in the wake of a tragedy; the firm extended a similar offer to victims of the West, TX explosion last month.

Austin-based Compare Metrics, a developer of product discovery software for e-commerce retailers has raised $4.2M in a first round of funding, the firm announced today. The funding was led by Austin Ventures, and also included Mike Maples (Floodgate), Bob Greene (Contour Venture Partners), Julie Allegro (Allegro Venture Partners) and Ralph Mack (Mack Capital), Tom Meredith, and Adam Ross. The company said the funding will go towards aggressive growth of the company. Compare Metrics was founded by Garrett Eastham, Mikael Solomon and Stephen Goodwin. The three came were at Stanford University, working on cognitive science research.

Houston has ranked number one for engineering jobs, in a report from job listings site Monster.com this morning, with both Dallas and Austin also seeing a high ranking. According to Monster, the online job board service, it ranked the top engineering job opportunities by location, and found that Houston had the highest volume of engineering jobs listed nationally in the past 120 days. Houston even beat out San Jose, California, for the number of opportunities. Both Dallas and Austin also ranked highly, with Dallas listed at number seven in the nation, and Austin at number ten in terms of ranking.

Austin-based MyEdu, the online college hiring site backed by Bain Capital and the University of Texas system, said today that it has launched a new, 30-day free trial of its MyEdu for Employers. The company said it will give employers 30 days free of its service to help post jobs or internships on the site, and connect with applicants. MyEdu's online site lets college students create their own personal profiles, and then helps match those profiles up with hiring managers. MyEdu claims its system helps employers recruit college students without having to sort through the responses that come through untargeted job postings.

The Round Rock, Texas-based data center integration business of Arvato Digital Services has been acquired by consulting, engineering, and construction management firm Fortress International Group, Fortress said this morning. Fortresss said it paid approximately $1.5 million in cash for the business, which it says generated over $10M in annualized revenue last year. According to Fortress, Arvato's Round Rock business provides custom rack layout design and configuration for large enterprise IT solutions, including storage, networking equipment, servers, cabling, power, and cooling. The business focused on the modular/containerized data center market.

Austin- and San Francisco-based startup investment service MicroVentures, which is a provider of an equity crowdfunding marketplace, said this week that its investors have invested a total of $16M into startups on the service. The firm has been able to conduct its fundraising ahead of clarifications on the JOBS act by being a traditional broker-dealer. MicroVentures did not say how many companies have been funded through its platform so far.

Round Rock-based Dell is dropping its plans to run its own, public cloud service, saying Monday that it has decided to turn to partners to provide cloud services to its customers. Dell said it will discontinue its own, in-house, multi-tenant public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service offerings in favor of its partners. Dell had been focused on using OpenStack to compete against Amazon.com. Dell is instead turning to Joyent, ScaleMatrix, and ZeroLag as partners on its cloud efforts. Dell also reportedly laid off staff supporting the cloud infrastructure effort.

Dallas looks to be cementing its presence in the world of IT consulting today, with the announcement of yet another, IT, business process outsourcing, and consulting firm opening up an office in the area. According to New Jersey-based Hexaware Technologies Limited it is opening up a new office in Frisco, which will house up to 150 engineers. Hexaware said it will initially hire 50 people from the local talent pool including both recent graduates and experienced engineers. Hexaware said the Dallas Global Delivery Center is its third development center here in the U.S.; its other two are located in New Jersey.

Ausitn-based Perk, the developer of the browser which rewards users for surfing the internet and shopping online, has just jumped onto the Bitcoin bandwagon. Bitcoin--which has surged into the conscious of the technology world in the last month--is an online currency. Perk--started by Roj Niyogi and Adam Salamon--said that users will be able to turn the service's rewards into Bitcoins, meaning that users will be able to use their points to purchase items from online users using the digital Bitcoin currency. Bitcoin has drawn a lot of interest in recent weeks due to a runup in the value of the currency versus the dollar, plus its lack of governmental regulation. Perk is venture backed by Insight Capital, as well as un-named angels.

Austin-based mobile restaurant/bar tab app developer Tabbedout said this morning that it has linked with Google Wallet, the new mobile payment offering from Google, in its Tabbedout app for Android. Tabbedout said that consumers will be able to pay from their phone using their Google account, available immediately. As part of the integration, Tabbedout said that users using Google Wallet will get $7 off their next tab. Google is looking to get into the mobile payments game with its new offering, which lets users pay for items using the payment information on their Google account.

In a letter released by Dell this morning, the company has given Carl Icahn a cold shoulder on its acquisition proposal, which Icahn had submitted on May 9th. In the letter to Icahn, Dell's board said it could not respond to Icahn to any requests and inquiries, or engage in discussions on the proposal until Icahn responds to Dell's earlier list of clarifications and demands about his proposal.

The funding round announced by Austin's ProspX earlier this week was worth $8.2M--with a target of $9.3M--according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. The company announced the funding round in conjunction with the appointment of Todd Young, former of AIG, earlier this week, but had not revealed the amount or details of the funding round. ProspX makes software used in quoting commercial insurance.

Austin-based IT consulting firm Catapult Systems is expanding its business in the Washington, D.C. area, the firm said today. The firm said it has appointed Reed Parker as General Manager of its Federal and Commercial Microsoft-focused lines of business. Reed previously served at Management Concept, The Gallup Organization, and MarchFirst. Catapult Systems said Reed will head up its expansion plans in the D.C. area.

Austin-based HotSchedules, which develops mobile and web-based employeee scheduling software, said Thursday that it has tied into online education service Schoox. HOtSchedules said it has added single sign-on integration with Schoox, a provider of online education tools. Financial details of the partnership between the companies were not announced. HotSchedules helps the restaurant and hospitality industry with employee scheduling and forecasting. Schoox develops employee training services.

ShopSavvy, the developer of the popular, mobile comparison shopping and barcode scanning app, has totally redesigned its iOS application, the company said today. The company said it redesigned the navigation and improved the look and feel of the app, along with adding other features to the comparison shopping app. Dallas-based ShopSavvy said the update works on both the iPhone and iPad. ShopSavvy's app allows users to scan a barcode and see the cost of those items online or at nearby retailers.

A Silicon Valley based developer of electronic design automation (EDA) software for the semiconductor industry, Blue Pearl Software, has opened up a new office in Texas, the company said Thursday. The firm did not say where exactly in Texas it has established its office, but said the new office will help provide local support to its customer base. The new office is headed by Richard Gary. Blue Pearl's software is used for field programmable gate array (FPGA) design efforts.

Austin-based Spanning Cloud Apps, the developer of enterprise backup software for Google Apps, said today that it has launched a new, reseller program. The firm said it is looking to help provide value added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators with the ability to sell its products. Spanning Cloud Apps said the channel effort would include an "aggressive" discount structure and strong margins for those resellers. Spanning Cloud Apps' products are used by companies to back up their data stored in Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sites, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.

Austin-based online coupon site RetailMeNot is one of a number of companies who have integrated with Google Wallet, Google said Wednesday at its big Google I/O conference. RetailMeNot will soon allow Google Wallet users to save and use coupons as part of the service; other supporters of Google's Wallet effort include Alaska Airlines, Red Mango, Marriott Rewards, and The Body Shop.

Round Rock-based Dell has awarded $60,000 in the grand prize of its Dell Social Innovation Challenge, its efforts to encourage social entrepreneurs who are solving the world's problems. According to Dell, it awarded the grand prize to a team from India, which created a "social conduction dryer", which uses the sun to reduce the estimated 20 to 30 percent food spoilage rate seen by poor rural farmers. Dell also awarded $40,000 to a group, Foot Soldiers, offering up affordable shoes to the poor in Bangladesh; Good-Benefits.com received $20,00 for its efforts to make it easier for people to make payroll contributions towards nonprofits; and two finalists, Semka Biomedical Technologies and Citizen Power / Sunriding, both received $10,000; Semka is working on a device for non-invasive tumor biopsies, and Citizen Power on a crowdsourced online social platform for solar installations. The Dell Social Innovation Challenge grew out of an effort originally started at the University of Texas at Austin.

In yet, another proof that Austin is becoming one of the leading cities for the startup world, startup accelerator pioneer TechStars said that it is launching its program in Austin, out of Austin's Capital Factory. TechStars has made its name as one of the more successful accelerator programs nationwide, using a three month program which helps hone startup ideas into actual companies, and gets them funded through a Demo Day.

TechStars said that it has signed up local mentors Brett Hurt (Bazaarvoice), Tom Ball and Mike Dodd (Austin Ventures), Sam Decker (Mass Relevance), Jeff Dachis (Dachis Group), Kip McClanahan and Morgan Flager (Silverton), Josh Baer and Bill Boebel (Capital Factory), Ned Hill and Aziz Gilani (Mercury Fund), Rony Kahan (Indeed), Rob Taylor (Black Locus) Lori Knowlton (HomeAway), and many others to support the program.

TechStars said its first program will start in August, with applications open as of today.

Data center services firm CyrusOne said today that it has selected Carrollton for its new corporate headquarters location, and will officially be cutting the ribbon on the site on May 21st. CyrusOne said the new headquarters will be based at its data center facility on Frankford Road. The company said it worked with
Senator Jane Nelson, Carrollton Mayor Matthew Marchant, Economic Development Director Brad Mink, and other officials on the new location. CyrusOne was founded in Houston in 2000. CyrusOne said the new headquarters was selected in an effort after its initial public offering in January. The firm has 11 data centers in Texas. CyrusOne has been naming the Dallas area as its headquarters since late 2012.