The executive teams of Manticore Technology and Sales Engine International, a B2B integrated marketing and sales acceleration company, this week announced an agreement to merge the organizations. Effective May 31, 2012, Manticore and Sales Engine — partners and mutual clients since 2009 — have merged to form a new company that will operate as Sales Engine International.

The combined resources of the new organization, according to a joint press release, will focus on combating common problems faced by marketing automation users, including a lack of defined internal processes, inadequate content and insufficient dedicated staffing.

NetProspex announced yesterday it received $7 million in Series B funding, led by information technology investment firm Edison Ventures, which had already invested $8.8 million in the company over the course of two rounds.

NetProspex reported it will use the funds to increase sales, accelerate channel partner integrations and support innovative product development.

“This investment supports aggressive expansion toward category leadership in cloud-based data services,” said Gary Halliwell, NetProspex CEO. “Bad data costs marketers significant missed revenue opportunity and costs hundreds of dollars per record to fix. Chief marketing officers need to get a grip on data hygiene, which is at the heart of what we’re doing. We are thrilled to have the power of Edison’s network and operational insight as we continue to grow and address these issues.”

Eloqua and Kapost today announced a technology integration that enables marketers to create, publish and promote marketing-relevant content, and to see its impact on the buyer's journey.

The integration effort, according to the two companies, is focused on providing visibility into how individual pieces of content boost a company's fans and followers, as well as into which prospects consumed which content assets. Users can connect leads in their database to individual pieces of content published through the Kapost platform by installing the app from the Eloqua AppCloud.

HootSuite and HubSpot today announced a strategic partnership — focused on connecting social media to generating, managing and nurturing leads — to help marketers "close the loop" on social media marketing. The partnership also includes a joint-effort app integration in HootSuite's App Directory.

Driving the partnership is the app integration, currently in beta, which is designed to enable users to automatically pull HubSpot lead and keyword data into HootSuite. The goal, according to the company, is to optimize opportunities around social engagement with leads, including those mentioning top-performing keywords, without leaving the HootSuite dashboard.

Salesforce announced Monday that it will acquire Buddy Media, a leading social media marketing platform, in a cash and equity deal valued at approximately $689 million. The transaction is expected to be completed during salesforce.com’s fiscal third quarter ending October 31, 2012, and is subject to customary closing conditions.

By combining Buddy Media with Salesforce Radian6, its social media listening platform, Salesforce says it will deliver a “Marketing Cloud” focused on enabling users to listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs.