Lost the first game I was winning

This short story is true, and the purpose is to illustrate the frustrating endgame situation.

I had bought everyone else out (4 other players), had 5 working Offworld's compare to the last guy's two, and we were in that race to accumulate enough cash.  My stock price was in around the $66, and the other guy was around $30.  He owned a good chunk of my stock and I his, his buyout price to me wasn't much different than mine to him.  I was getting close to the $670,000 (although the total kept going up) I needed in cash, and then lost the game.  I was selling off high price resources like crazy to generate the cash I needed, which I still wonder whether frantic selling of resources contributes to being bought out.

I guess I just don't understand the endgame situation.  The mechanics feel artificial to fit some kind of playtime goal, rather than intuitive to me.