Rare Method announced it has strengthened its position as a Canadian interactive marketing firm by acquiring Ground Level Design, a Calgary-based website development company. Terms of the cash deal were not disclosed.

AFFINA - The Customer Relationship Company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Hinduja TMT (HTMT). The Company will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HTMT limited, a global leader in the provision of call center and BPO services with operations in United States, Canada, Philippines, India and Mauritius.

Indus and Vista Equity Partners announced they have entered into a merger agreement under which Indus, subject to customary closing conditions, will be acquired by an affiliate of Vista in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $240 million.

Research from independent market analyst Datamonitor has found that the total value of venture capital (VC) invested into the technology sector in the first half of 2006 increased by $1bn on the levels invested during the equivalent year-ago period. Datamonitor's Technology Finance MarketWatch tracked 602 investment deals into technology companies in the first six months of the year, a rise of nearly 100 deals compared with activity over the same period in 2006 when 513 transactions were recorded.

Epicor announced the introduction of Epicor Information Worker (IW), a new desktop productivity solution that delivers Epicor's enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications on the 2007 Microsoft Office system, providing information workers with improved access to business data.

Oracle announced new pre-built integrations that will enable organizations to reduce security costs and more rapidly incorporate Oracle Identity Management into their existing enterprise application environments.

Pivotal announced that Boca Developers has consolidated, centralized and enhanced its sales process following implementation of the Pivotal CRM solution from CDC Software.

eOn announced that it has partnered with HengSys Data Net Inc. to supply an emergency response management communications solution platform for the government of Dong Ying City, located in the Shan Dong province of the Peoples Republic of China.

Surado Solutions announced the support of Computer Telephony Integration with ShoreTel IP PBX telephone systems. With CTI integration to ShoreTel telephone systems, when an incoming call is directed to an extension, Surado CRM CTI application residing on the computer is alerted and pops up the Surado CRM Contact Screen for the person calling in.

eGain announced its inclusion on the Software 500. The Software 500 is a revenue-based ranking of the world's largest software and services suppliers targeting medium to large enterprises.