Savantech claims to provide domain expertise and implementation capabilities to incubate start-ups into e-business of digital content. According to industry sources, the company had received $30 million in venture capital funding from a French firm, and was also planning an IPO to raise Rs 10 crore from the Indian or overseas markets.

Industry sources said the company was in the process of developing a d-commerce portal under the brand name Savantech, and the merger is believed to have been driven by the desire to join the dot.com bandwagon. Savantech, which, develops technology, products and services for the d-commerce market, is a 2-year-old US-based firm, headed by president and CEO Prasad Ram.

The 3-year-old Icon was a solutions and services provider in the e-commerce space prior to the merger, which has helped it get into d-commerce or the "buying, selling and delivery of digital content over networks." The company says d-commerce will be the way to go in digitised content provision such as movies, music, games and published works. It will help monitor and protect intellectual property rights on the Internet. Although the company's chief operations officer S Ramakrishnan agreed to an interview with eFE, he backtracked during the meeting and declined to talk about the business.