Salesforce.com announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rypple, a cloud-based social performance management company. The acquisition signifies salesforce.com’s entry into the human capital management (HCM) market for the social enterprise. Salesforce.com plans to re-launch Rypple as “Successforce” and create a new HCM business unit, which will be run by John Wookey.

The transaction is expected to close in salesforce.com’s fiscal first quarter ending April 30, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions according to a company release.

True Influence, a provider of pay-for-performance lead generation solutions, today announced the launch of the LeadPAC Free Plan, as well as tiered pricing plans available on a monthly or pay-per-play basis.

LeadPAC, which was launched commercially in September 2011, is a behaviorally targeted, self-service email prospecting platform designed to enable online advertisers and marketers to target the right message to the right person at the right time.

True Influence, a provider of pay-for-performance lead generation solutions, today announced the launch of the LeadPAC Free Plan, as well as tiered pricing plans available on a monthly or pay-per-play basis.

LeadPAC, which was launched commercially in September 2011, is a behaviorally targeted, self-service email prospecting platform designed to enable online advertisers and marketers to target the right message to the right person at the right time.

Cloud-based marketing automation provider Pardot is continuing its rapid growth approaching year’s end, as the company has surpassed the 14,000-user mark, and doubled its employee count year over year. Additionally, the company said it has already added more than 100 new customers to date in Q4 2011.

In 2011, Pardot added more than 100 new deals per quarter, according to Co-Founder & COO Adam Blitzer, and he added the company is on track to finish Q4 with 130 new customers added.

The Sales Lead Management Association recently announced the 2011 installment of the “50 Most Influential People In Sales Lead Management.”  DemandGen Report (DGR) Editor & Publisher, Andrew Gaffney, has been named to the list for the third consecutive year.

This year, 7,113 votes were cast (22% more than the 2010 election) for 79 nominees by more than 4,500 people (each voter could choose up to three nominees). Nominees came from many diverse disciplines including, CRM Software and Marketing Automation Software, to telemarketing qualification companies and publishing.

By Joe Payne, CEO, Eloqua

If I had to name the most disruptive force on business this year, I’d tell you the advent of cloud computing.

Yeah, I know, cloud computing started long before 2011. But if you think about it, every trend that dominated the tech headlines this year — social media, the proliferation of apps, the surging market for mobile devices — owes a debt to the cloud.

By Joe Payne, CEO, Eloqua

If I had to name the most disruptive force on business this year, I’d tell you the advent of cloud computing.

Yeah, I know, cloud computing started long before 2011. But if you think about it, every trend that dominated the tech headlines this year — social media, the proliferation of apps, the surging market for mobile devices — owes a debt to the cloud.

The Marketing Automation Institute (MAI) recently announced the availability of its three initial course offerings.  The course curriculum is designed to provide process-based insight that highlights the skills necessary to be successful using marketing automation technology.

“We’re finding more and more organizations buying into this myth of ‘plug and play’ technology,” said Carlos Hidalgo, Executive Director of the MAI. “We want to supply a firm foundation for a user to get a level set of what automation is and how to approach it, as well as what should be considered to get the most out of the technology and your investment in it.”

As the phenomenon that is Facebook continues to blossom as a revolutionary communication platform, so does the opportunity for businesses to drive growth by cultivating an engaging presence with prospects and customers. Facebook currently has more than 800 users, 500 of whom log on daily.

In his keynote address at the company’s Cloudforce Conference November 30 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff pointed to Facebook as leading the revolution toward the Social Enterprise. “Facebook has unleashed a power and energy of social networking that we just haven’t seen before,” he said.

Demandbase, a provider BtoB marketing performance improvement technology solutions, today announced enhancements to its Real-Time Identification Service. The solution now includes enhanced audience classification capabilities for worldwide business web traffic.

Specific audience classifications include business size, industry/verticals, government, education, residential and wireless. These enhancements are designed to enable marketers to personalize content more effectively, and optimize their web sites and digital marketing programs to improve customer acquisition and customer retention.