All of these reasons are why AGO is where it is now. A great...

All of these reasons are why AGO is where it is now. A great salesman but not so good at running a sustainable business. It didn't go down the sewer many times, just the once and all of that was a consequence of decisions made by the board. Most of the deals turned out to be value destructive. It had a dream run up to billions of dollars market cap with no resistance, all it needed was a steady pair of hands. As you say, it was his baby. But it actually belonged to thousands of shareholders. He was not a "business owner" at all. It is a public listed company and needed an objective board that did not view it as their own personal empire. Don't weep too sadly. Of all the people involved with AGO, DF probably came out on top having cashed out $15 million of his own holdings when everyone else was buying and taking home multi million dollar pay packets.