• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 11 AM

It has sometimes seemed in the past few years that everyone in America was launching their own ad networks, a sure sign of bad things to come. Now, the overcrowded field is starting to feel the pinch as ad sales and funding dry up, meaning many of those networks could soon disappear as quickly as they popped up.

Until now, the field experienced tremendous growth thanks to a low technical barrier of entry and wide-eyed investors eager to cash in on all the money flowing to the Web. But of the 300 networks that have launched in the past few years, at least one has recently shut its doors, many others are laying off employees, and analysts suggest several more will shut down before the end of the year.

Although advertisers are expected to put their money with larger networks in a bid for safety, the slowdown is expected to affect those networks as well. TimeWarner recently warned of softening at its AOL unit, and analysts have cut their expectations for ValueClick.

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