With election fever gripping the nation ahead of Saturday's big vote, CBD decided to go somewhere quiet to escape the political madness: And Canberra was the perfect choice for your columnist's long weekend.

It is no surprise that a few gems got missed in CBD's absence.

This includes the departure of former tech wunderkind, Alex Hartman, from the digital media company he founded, Newzulu.

Maybe he was getting tired of dealing with all the paparazzi shots of Roxy Jacenko from the Oliver Curtis insider trading trial, which relied on the testimony of Alex's brother, convicted insider trader John Hartman.

But there were other strong reasons to vacate the big seat following the $5 million cash injection by Kerry Stokes' Seven West Media and Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investment Group.

Newzulu still plans to change the world by making everyone with a smartphone a potential journalist but it obviously needed to sharpen things up a bit given the cash burn problem, which has sent the share price from a high of 19¢ to a recent low of 1¢.

NewZulu opened its ASX announcement on Friday with the news that Seven West's digital guru Clive Dickens had joined the board and announced the "transition" of Hartman from the managing director role. The bottom of the press release provided a bit more clarity on Alex's transition.

"The company has received notice of termination from Alexander Hartman which provides six months' notice of termination of his consultancy deed with Newzulu, effective 29 June."

The Newzulu chief will be leaving all of his board positions with the group as well.

"The board is confident that with the new focus, board and management team at Newzulu the company is very well positioned to execute on the strategy and business plan," chairman Charles Koones said.

So Newzulu is now looking for a replacement for Hartman who can take the company to great heights when he steps down later this year. CBD wonders if alleged Newzulu shareholder, Malcolm Turnbull, will be free. 

Ebb tide 

CBD is writing this column amid the noise of Google chewing up yet another floor that once housed Fairfax Media, so we are well versed in the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence.

And Hartman is not the only relatively fresh CEO of an ASX-listed company to experience the transience of their occupation.

Omni Market Tide, the shareholder engagement app provider backed by pokies billionaire, Bruce Mathieson, announced the departure of its chief executive, Megan Boston, less than a year after its ASX listing.

It is safe to assume the plummeting share price meant Boston was failing to engage with her own investors, like Mathieson, despite using its own technology to become the first local company to hold a "digital and real time" AGM as well as signing up Telstra and Westpac.

Investors who are surprised by the fact that the stock is trading at a fraction of Omni Tide's listing price last year should have taken note of the details Omni Tide was forced to include after ASIC issued an interim stop order on the prospectus.

Like the fact that "the cost for a competitor to develop a competing product may not be significant, and may be substantially less than the implied market capitalisation of the company based on the offer price".

Heavy Toll 

In other significant news, Macquarie Atlas Roads (MQA) Group announced that the overlords at Nick Moore's Macquarie mothership have agreed to reduce the base management fee it charges the toll road operator.

The base price of Macquarie's wisdom will be capped at 1 per cent of MQA's market valuation.

"At a market capitalisation of $2.7 billion, the fee reduction will result in savings of approximately $14.3 million per annum for MQA securityholders," it reported.

Don't worry, nobody at the Macquarie mothership will starve just yet. MQA also reported to the ASX that Macquarie managed to earn a "performance fee" for the financial year ending June 30, totalling $134.1 million "after offsetting the net underperformance carried forward for 2015".

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au