Web shops mesh: wave of mergers sweeps through digital community. (San Francisco, California)

Shane Ginsberg looks more like a SOMA nightclub hipster than a budding Internet entrepreneur. Yet last month, he sold Plastic, his 2-year-old interactive agency, to fast-growing New York digital media firm Razorfish.

Plastic isn't the only web-design shop in the city to become a hot takeover target. In April, publicly traded US-Web acquired San Francisco's Ikonic, while New York-based Agency.com gobbled up Ketchum Interactive San Francisco.

The rumor mill has several other local independents like Vivid and Studio Archetype gussying themselves up for inevitable sales.

The web-design industry has been hit with the urge to merge. More than a dozen deals have been consummated across the country since January, as a …