while I am a long way off being convinced the proposed deal was good for the company, the simple fact is that there was nothing in the bid that breeched the regulatory regimes.
The running of the bid was at best a tragic comedy, however Dixon & Jackson would have been praised by the shareholders who would have gladly taken the uplift if the deal proceeded. As a CEO & Chairperson the reality is that's the shareholders who take the number one slot on the Exec brief and they passionately batted for them - although they were particularly poorly advised and managed when it came to media.
In terms of broader leadership and future governance however their collective tenure at Q will be recorded in a less than positive light. Dixon wraps his innings with no real increase in the share price and a corporation in disarray. The so called legacies of the Dixon era are seen by many as nett losses.
That said, the bloke did face the challenge of reforming some prehistoric and in part bloody minded IR environments - while my view is that he went about it the wrong way and could have had engaged staff to score much better business outcomes, it's all history and nothing is to be gained by retro debate.
Allco's current issues are a reflection of a whole host of unrelated factors and like any listed company it will have to ride the waves of a overly reactive and highly speculative market. - Allco is not alone either and there's some heavyweight people such as B&B etc., sharing their unsavoury perch.
Like all things in the market however it is unwise to take a position on a given trading value. More often than not, a good story or a big storm is all that is needed to turn things around and shift the spotlight elsewhere.
People bagged Woolies at 3's and Newscorp at 7's when they faced shareprice turbulence and while Q is down there today, baseline is the APA deal did not happen and hypothetical "what if's" and "I told you so's" regarding Allco/Q is a bit like the punter in the pub after the races have finished.