There had been rumours last week that DGM was struggling financially, and it seems those industry whispers have now been confirmed. DGM is informing creditors, and has officially gone into administration. Founded in 1999, DGM was one of the leading affiliates in the UK market. The company has a number of blue chip clients, including Vodafone, Tiscali and JD Williams. You wonder why they’ve struggled given the continued online budget shift towards DR and performance marketing. While DGM was going to the wall, two of Europe’s other affiliate heavyweights agreed a merger. Zanox and the UK’s largest affiliate, Digital Window, have confirmed that they are to merge. Not a huge surprise given that Zanox’s owners, Axel Springer and PubliGroupe, already had a majority holding in Digital Window. The deal will create the largest affiliate company in Europe.