This really is not as simple as some here try to make it out to be. Sure, given the eroding share price and shareholder trust, the "fire Doug" chants appear plausible on their face. But then what? Is Erich really capable of being a CEO of a publicly traded company (a role that he has never took on before)? And last I heard Erich was living oversees and focused on building that side of the business. So could he really continue to do that and run the company? And if not him, then who? Moreover, while Doug may have lost our trust, equally important is how he is viewed in the corporate world (i.e., with the current and new potential corporate patent owners and infringers/licensing partners)? Presumably, it was Doug's relationship with GE that helped to drive that deal to closure with respect to the patents in the oil and gas vertical. Would GE walk away if Doug is removed? Does GE still have confidence in Doug? Is there a possibility that MARA can expand the GE relationship to include additional verticals? I don't have the answer to these questions but they are certainly relevant to the overall discussion.
Can Doug turn this around? I honestly don't know. But again nothing is as simple as it appears on its face. For example, UCLA basketball fans will remember just a short time ago they were flying banners through the sky demanding that they fire Steve Alford as the head basketball coach (a tradition that happens all across the country when coaches appear to be underperforming). He wasn't fired and after a few great recruiting classes and a deep run in the tourney, he became the hot "in demand" coach that UCLA fought to retain via a contract extension. Since I have a lot of money invested in MARA, I hope that a year from now we will view Doug through a similar prism. $50 million in revenue would likely do the trick. Time will tell.
