Melville digital marketer's firm acquired

Last week was one of the most important in the business life of Melville-based Internet guru Andrew Hazen. The digital marketing company he started while working at a Syosset law firm in 1998 -- Prime Visibility -- was acquired for an eye-popping $36 million by a California video-search-engine enterprise, publicly traded blinkx plc.

The acquisition marked the second time Prime Visibility has been bought. The first was in 2007, when it was scooped up for an unannounced sum by a group of private investors. Hazen, now 38, then retained the title of founder, and he plans to stay on now, he said late last week.

Hazen, of Jericho, acknowledges he did "pretty well" as a result of the blinkx deal, although he declined to say how well. Nonetheless, he said, "Those that know me, regardless of how much money I have in the bank, know that my personality is one that always needs to be working. I follow my passion and my dreams."

Hazen was a lawyer with the Carus & Manniello law firm in Syosset in 1998. Less than six months into the job, he said, he persuaded the lawyers there to back his idea for a digital marketing business. He soon moved the business to a suite next door to the law firm, had three employees, and bought out the lawyers who had backed him.

In 2001 Hazen moved the company to a business incubator run by the Long Island Software and Technology Network at Briarcliffe College in Bethpage. When the company left for the office in Melville, there were 57 employees. The company now has about 35 employees.

"Andrew has a mind that works at speeds none of us can maintain," said Peter Goldsmith, LISTnet chairman. "He's one of the most incredible entrepreneurs Long Island has."

Hazen said Prime Visibility will bring advertising and marketing expertise to blinkx.

Blinkx chief executive Suranga Chandratillake said Prime Visibility has "a level of insight" blinkx needs. He said he hopes Prime Visibility's staff stays on.

If Hazen ever gets tired of Prime Visibility, he has another company he helped start that his father, Michael Hazen, 67, now runs: allbobbleheads.com, which makes custom bobblehead dolls that start at $85 a piece. Thousands are manufactured a year. "It's a great business," Andrew Hazen said.