The big sign-offs of 2011: When talent doesn’t work out

Talent acquisitions don’t always work out, even at the top. Here are some of the most notable CEO firings and resignations of 2011.

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Getting fired over the phone isn’t customary for a CEO, but that’s exactly what the Yahoo! chairman of the board Roy Bostock did to CEO Carol Bartz on Sept. 6. Bartz then sent a company-wide e-mail describing exactly what went down, writing, “I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone.” Less than a day later, Bartz told Fortune’s Patricia Sellers, “These people [expletive] me over.” The news came after an independent study of Yahoo’s assets and performance found the company to be performing beneath its potential. In this photo, Bartz talks during a news conference on May 24, 2010, in New York.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Known as “Saint Ossie” for his work leading Credit Suisse, Oswald J. Grubel was hired by UBS out of retirement in 2007. Grubel served as UBS chief executive until his resignation in September, following a $2 billion trading loss. In this photo, Grubel leaves the UBS office in Singapore after a meeting of the bank's board and senior executives on Sept. 22, 2011, in Singapore — days before his retirement was announced.

Joseph Nair / AP

The name Solyndra quickly became synonymous with government waste, after the solar technology company declared bankruptcy in August. According to reporting by NBC Bay Area, employees stood around the freshly-minted Solyndra campus dumbfounded when the company, which received $535 million in low cost loan guarantees from the Department of Energy, closed its doors. Here Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 23 2011, during a House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing. Harrison invoked his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Christina Norman was tapped to run the Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN. But her tenure was short-lived. Winfrey, dissatisfied with the initial ratings, joined business partner Discovery Communications in ushering Norman out after four months on the job. Norman was replaced by Discovery Communications chief operating officer Peter Liguori. In this photo, Norman, then-president of MTV, poses for photos at the Palms hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Sept. 5, 2007.

Jae C. Hong / AP

Where’s the money? That question that has been hounding former MF Global Holdings Ltd. Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine since the firm filed for bankruptcy Oct. 31. Corzine voluntarily resigned four days after the bankruptcy declaration, announcing his split with the sinking company hours before conflicting reports came to light that $633 million in customer money had gone missing. Here Corzine waits to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 13, 2011, before the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Susan Walsh / AP

It could be argued that CEOs don’t get fired, they simply parachute away. But that wasn’t the case with Ernst Lieb, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA. Daimler dismissed Lieb on Oct. 17. Lieb had served in the position since 2006. He was reportedly released because of misuse of company funds to pay for golf club fees and granting rentals for cars in exchange for flight upgrades. Here, Lieb introduces the ML450 Hybrid SUV at the 2009 New York International Auto Show on April 8, 2009.

Richard Drew / AP

“I thought I was coming to run a health care company ... and a consumer electronics company, and I find myself in this John Grisham novel,” said then-former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondent’s Club on Nov. 25 (pictured). Woodford had worked for the Japanese camera maker for 30 years. But he was fired as the company’s CEO after only six months in the position for raising questions about eye-poppingly large costs incurred by acquisitions as well as payments to a little-known Wall Street firm. The Japanese magazine Facta suggested ties between the company and the yakuza. The company’s offices were raided by Japanese prosecutors Dec. 21.

Itsuo Inouye / AP

“Leo Apotheker has totally lost control of HP,” blared an Aug. 18 headline on Business Insider. The Hewlett-Packard CEO left the comapny after a series of failed ventures, including the TouchPad (which was eventually discontinued), and on-again-off-again reports that the company would spin off its PC business. Here Leo Apotheker speaks during an interview in San Francisco.

Paul Sakuma / AP

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May 21, 2012: Members of the Naval Academy freshman class (plebes) lock arms and form a human ladder while climbing the Herndon Monument at the United States Naval Academy on May 21, 2012 in Annapolis, Md. Each year members of the Naval Academy's freshman class (plebes) climb the lard covered 21-foot tall Herndon Monument to replace a plebe dixie cup hat with a midshipman's hat at the top of the obelisk.

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