Firstly, I'm no expert, just a long term MAQ fanboi, so DYOR.
"I'm guessing that MAQ was back in the day a spin-off from the millionaire's factory but those ties are long cut, yes?"
No, "Tudehope and his brother established Macquarie Telecom in 1992" - LINK
"Also I see that the Tudehope brothers control/ own Claiward Pty Ltd which has about 45% of the MAQ registry. Any governance or succession issues with that?"
Not that I'm aware of. I guess ultimately, they run the show, up until recently they held even more, well in excess of 50%, up to you to decide if you're happy or not with them running the show. Except for CSL I've found my best performing shares are the ones where the person/s who started the company, still run it and have a major shareholding, i.e. MAQ, ALU, ARB, WTC (and also have a good product/service/etc of course).
"One slightly less dumb but still obvious question: it seems to me that the greatest threat to data centre operators in coming times will be energy supply, both in terms of shortages and of rising costs. Have the Tudehopes indicated how they intend to address that threat or turn it into an opportunity?"
Data centres are now critical infrastructure and all have power backup in place: LINK Can't remember where, but David Tudehope said to the effect any increases would be factored into customer costings and passed on, same as most businesses do, so doesn't see it as a problem, but like any business they'd like cheaper energy. LINK - LINK
Good luck.
MAQ Price at posting:
$95.70 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)