News

Intuit Inc. recently agreed to purchase Demandforce, a San Francisco-based Software-as-a-Service company for SMBs. Demandforce’s SaaS, application is used by thousands of small businesses to automate marketing and customer communications, build and maintain a strong online reputation, and raise their profile with local consumers.

The cash transaction, valued at approximately $423.5 million, is expected to close in May 2012, subject to a legally mandated waiting period and other customary closing conditions.

Eloqua recently announced the appointment of new Chief Marketing Officer Heidi Melin, a marketing executive with experience leading some of Silicon Valley’s most respected technology brands. Melin, who has held CMO posts at Taleo, Polycom and Hyperion Solutions, will report directly to Eloqua CEO Joe Payne.

Melin has led marketing and demand generation efforts at several successful businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. She comes to Eloqua from Taleo, which was recently acquired by Oracle Corporation, where she was CMO. Prior to Taleo, she served as CMO of Polycom Inc. Before joining Polycom, Melin was CMO at Hyperion Solutions Corp. (now Oracle Hyperion), where she led a brand strategy that led to renewed recognition within the business intelligence space. Prior to Hyperion Solutions, Melin led marketing services at PeopleSoft.

Infusionsoft, a provider of sales and marketing software for small businesses, reported record growth during Q1 2012, surpassing its quarterly goals. Infusionsoft closed Q1 with nearly 1,100 new customers — growing its customer list to 8,700 small businesses with 31,000 users in 62 countries. According to the company, its customers capture 2.5 million leads, send 300 million emails, add 14.5 million contacts and process $83 million in transactions each month.

Infusionsoft also expanded its executive team, in March naming Marc Chesley Chief Technology Officer and Richard Tripp Chief Product Officer. Infusionsoft also added nearly 30 employees, bringing the total to 217.

HomeStar Broker Solutions Corp., a provider of Internet lead conversion solutions to the real estate industry, and LeadMaster, a provider of cloud computing solutions for CRM, sales lead management, marketing automation and sales force automation, announced an agreement to provide LeadMaster as the engine for the HomeStar Technology Platform.

Vancouver, Canada-based HomeStar Broker Solutions is a lead management company specializing in online conversions in real estate. The company’s clients include real estate companies looking for outsourced assistance in lead response, agent support and lead cultivation.

The company provides its clients with support to validate and respond to online property  inquiries, and to ensure immediate follow up. The company also offers back-end support to monitor agent activity and optimize lead conversion efforts.

Marketing automation software vendor Neolane recently announced new features for Neolane Interaction, the company's real-time offer management solution. The new features are designed to provide a better experience for anonymous users and to provide better alignment for cross-channel marketing campaigns.

Neolane Interaction combines a central offer catalog, business rules engine and database marketing list to identify individuals arriving via inbound marketing channels. It then selects, personalizes and renders appropriate offers for each user based on their behavior and known personal characteristics. It is available as either a stand-alone solution or as part of the company's campaign management software.