• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 24, 2013

Consolidation among the digital advertising technology companies is on the horizon.

Dan Chen, managing director, Siemer and Associates, LLC, at the OMMA Data Driven Marketing event, says “investors are getting exhaustive and fatigued in the space.”

The number of venture capital investments has declined to around 56 during the second quarter this year from 109 in second quarter 2011. At the same time mergers and acquisition activity is up --34 deals in the first half of 2013 versus 17 for the same time period a year ago.

“Businesses are profit-challenged,” he says. Chen adds too many in the space overlap each other’s efforts. "They are running out of funding."