DAZ merged with Gizmoz a few years ago.  I believe Chris had already departed DAZ by the time of the merger.  Don't know about Dan Farr but Steve Kondris was still there. 

Last anyone knew the man at the top of DAZ had ties to ProvoCraft, the company that sold the Circut of scrapbooking and infomercial fame.

Hivewire3D has no ties to DAZ other than the fact they use DS to rig the figures and port to Poser.