Nasdaq-listed Unica has acquired privately-held Pivotal Veracity for approximately $17.8 million in cash, the company announced this morning prior to the opening of the market. The marketing software company picked up Pivotal Veracity, which was founded in August 2003, to ramp up its e-mail marketing software solutions in what it regards as a ‘logical extension’ of their offerings. Pivotal Veracity markets a suite of tools designed to optimize the deliverability, reputation and effectiveness of digital communication. Its software suite enables its customers, which include companies like Cisco, Classmates.com, Digitas, Nestle and Sears, to maximize e-mail content rendering and delivery effectiveness and reduce the cost of sending emails that never reach intended recipients, including those that are filtered by ISP and third party spam filter services, or end up in personal spam folders. Pivotal Veracity also helps customers protect their brands by minimizing the risk of being blacklisted, as well as ensuring that customers are actively protected by ISP and third party whitelists. Unica had already integrated Pivotal Veracity’s solutions into its enterprise and on-demand offerings and says it expects to deepen that integration across both companies’ product lines and continue to sell Pivotal Veracity’s solutions on a stand-alone basis as well. Pivotal Veracity’s co-founders, Deirdre Baird and Michelle Eichner, will join Unica and guide the company’s efforts in email marketing and deliverability. Unica says the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to its revenue in fiscal year 2010 and should be neutral to slightly accretive to FY10 Non-GAAP EPS. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

On December 14, one man woke up to find himself infested in a world with zombies. Or at least, he’s tweeting like it is. This man, Gus , in Miami, Florida has been tweeting relentlessly for the past month as if the world is at and end. Or as he puts it in his bio, “ Zombies are everywhere and this is my diary of the apocalypse.” Among other things, he’s documented his first zombie scratch (and relief that he was still human afterwards), his scavenging for food at abandoned gas stations, and of course, plenty of zombie sightings . To add to the tale, Gus is even taking somewhat elaborate TwitPics of his adventure. For example, here’s a picture of a dead person (covered in blood) that Gus lifted some keys from. He’s also made a video , of some zombies apparently chasing him, that you can barely see. Overall, a solid effort, and something that should keep the zombie-crazed Internet amused until Gus’ inevitable demise at the hands of zombies. [thanks Franco ] Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

iYogi , a company that provides remote tech support directly to consumers and small businesses, has raised a Series C round to the tune of $15 million. The round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and joined by prior investors Canaan Partners, SAP Ventures, and SVB India Capital Partners. The Gurgaon, India-headquartered firm earlier raised $3.1 million and $9.5 million in two rounds in 2007 and 2008, respectively. iYogi offers a number of tech support services like PC installation and recovery, anti-virus/spyware, data back-up and PC speed optimization. Its annual unlimited tech support plan starts at $139.99. Most of its tech support services are centered around Microsoft software, but Google and Apple products are also listed on iYogi’s website . iYogi says it will use the additional capital to expand its team of Global Tech Experts , which are basically people who help consumers and SMBs solve their computer problems from a remote location. iYogi says that today, it has more than 100,000 annual subscribers and provides thousands of incident sessions every day on a 24/7 basis. The company claims that it has seen a 300 percent growth in revenues and subscribers since 2008, and that it currently boasts an employee workforce of 1,200. iYogi intends to grow the number of Global Tech Experts to 3,000 worldwide in 2010. iYogi delivers its services in partnership with companies like HP, Microsoft and Cisco and counts Amazon and Walmart among the retailers that have worked with the company to enhance customer service. Have you ever used iYogi? Is it something you would recommend to your less tech-savvy friends and/or relatives? Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Today during Google’s Nexus One event , Android lead Andy Rubin revealed something that’s sure to be a relief for Android users and developers alike: you’ll eventually be able to store a vast number of applications on your phone — even large ones — the same way you can on an iPhone. The change will come with a future software update, when Android begins storing applications as encrypted files on the SD card. Rubin didn’t say how long it will be until we see the update, but it’s clear that the team is working to resolve the problem. Up until now, developers have been hampered by the fact that every Android phone to date has had a relatively small amount of storage available for applications (a couple hundred megabytes as opposed to the iPhone’s many gigabytes). Apps are stored in the phone’s ROM rather than the phone’s removable (and cheaper) SD storage, which grants developers enhanced protection against having their apps against piracy. But it’s also proven to be a handicap. Many of the iPhone’s most popular applications are graphics intensive, rich games. But these games often require high quality visual assets to go with them. The iPhone handles these fine — you can download massive apps over Wi-Fi or through iTunes sync. On the other hand, while the newest Android phones are certainly capable of rendering high quality graphics, their ability to handle large apps is limited by the phone’s available storage. Yes, developers can choose to download their app’s assets to the SD card after the initial install, but this isn’t a good experience for the end user. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

AdNectar , a word-of-mouth marketing service for agencies and brands fielding campaigns on social networks, announced today that it has reached 2 billion virtual goods sent from its platform. AdNectar has clients ranging from Gillette and Funny or Die to Jelly Belly and Snapple/Dr. Pepper. Also, over 10 million virtual goods have been sent between friends on social networks. According to data from AdNectar, campaigns reach scale fast. For example, over 1 million Malibu Rum branded drinks were sent in two weeks; and over 1 million Nestle Toll House cookies were sent for the “Bake some Love” campaign. Engagement rates are also reportedly high for companies. Rates are anywhere from 2% to 6% because the campaigns tap into the implicit trust between your friends on these social networks. Also, brand impact is exceptionally high; 16% lift in purchase intent for Nestle Toll House, and 9% increase in brand favorability for Malibu Rum. AdNectar and virtual goods is definitely taking off, and brands are starting to realize that, and AdNectar is using that to their advantage. AdNectar is based in Palo Alto, and has 7 employees. The company has only taken an angel round of funding from Larry Braitman, Tom Cole, Kevin Hartz, Brian O’Kelley, Jon Perlow, Russell Siegelman and David Shen. CrunchBase Information AdNectar Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.