'I was fired on the phone' and other stories from dumped CEOs

When Andrew Mason wrote his "People of Groupon" memo on February 28, 2013, saying he had been fired from his job, Twitterati echoed the quirky CEO's exit letter. But Mason, controversial more ways than one, is not the first one in US Inc. to be shown the door by a demanding board. Here are other iconic and "very visible" CEOs who had to exit almost overnight:

Carol Bartz, Yahoo
The Yahoo CEO had been brought in to turn around the first company of the Internet but failed both in strategy ("we are a media portal not search company") and execution. Her hard-nosed style of leadership, which grated Yahoo veterans, failed to deliver. Eventually, on Sept 6, 2011, she was asked to leave. She was as outspoken as she left: ""I am very sad to tell you that I've just been fired over the phone by Yahoo's Chairman of the Board [Roy Bostock]."

Steve Jobs, Apple
At 30, some nine years since he co-founded Apple in a Californian garage, Steve Jobs was fired from the company - by the CEO he had hired. The then-CEO, John Sculley, now regrets the departure but sees little else that could have been done. For Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1996 through its acquisition of NeXT computers, it worked out well in the end. "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me," he told a Stanford graduating class later.

Lee Iacocca, Ford
Iacocca, Ford Motor Co.'s salesman impresario was fired in 1978, ending eight years of a testy relationship with Henry Ford II. Iacocca, known for his fantastic salesman skills as also running arguably the finest business model in Corporate America then, was a difficult man to work with, making Ford II uneasy. Ford II is said to have authorised a $1.5 million investigation in the business and personal life. Iacocca was hired by Chrysler Corp. in 1979 and turned around the company brilliantly before retiring in 1992.

Carly Fiorina, HP
When Carly Fiorina, one of the powerful women CEOs in US Inc. was eased out of Hewlett-Packard in February 2005, stockmarkets cheered driving shares of HP up nearly seven per cent. "While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said then. Controversial was her decision to buy Compaq fighting even an HP heir. Her brash and take-no-prisoners style of leadership didn't gel well with the engineer-led culture of HP, either.

Leo Apotheker, HP
HP has had more than its share of fired-CEOs (remember, Mark Hurd, who was asked to go after an inappropriate work-personal relationship with a contractor emerged?). The latest was Leo Apotheker, a former SAP hand, who was asked to leave HP in less than a year in the corner office. In September 2011, while introducing new CEO Meg Whitman, HP's Executive Chairman Ray Lane didn't use as many words but said Apotheker had not formed a strong executive team, hadn't been able to execute on his strategy, and had sub-optimal communications skills.