I agree that conceptually, PIM and DAM are similar. But their applications are radically different when it comes to the Use Cases involved. PIM is "data centric" and DAM is "asset centric." Although in theory many assets are related to product data, that's not always true. Creative users that need an asset for an email campaign have very different use cases than a merchant verifying if a product is in stock. DAMs specialize in managing assets via rights/permissions, versioning, transformation, and distribution. Like so many areas in technology, things that seem really similar and therefore should just merge into a single "Staples easy button" solution, defy that reality when you start testing real-world use cases. I think PIM and DAM will remain independent for at least the next 5-10 years, although some vendors are certainly trying to meld them together.