The paper analyzes the online advertising network business from an M&A perspective in light of Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

DeSilva+Phillips predicts a “long tail” of revenue, profit and scale for the smaller ad networks out there – as long as they capitalize on ad exchanges. There is still a great deal of unsold inventory, and the ad exchanges offer considerable scale to advertisers while remaining too small to attract Google or Yahoo’s attention as bolt-on additions, the paper predicts.

New “aQuantives” may emerge, with midsize independents like Casale and Tribal Fusion doing roll-ups on their own — and, accordingly, becoming acquisition targets themselves, DeSilva+Phillips says.

DeSilva+Phillips specializes in media and digital media industries and has completed almost 200 transactions with a total value of more than $8 billion.