Some companies are happy to see 2011 fade away, due to the biting, public embarrassments they suffered this year. From failed mergers to ill-advised product releases, many businesses are badly in need of a fresh start.

Engadget rounds up the biggest tech failures of the year for your gawking pleasure. Here are three that made the list:

* Netflix Qwikster. The well-chronicled debacle, in which Netflix hiked prices and briefly decided to separate its disc-rental arm into a different company before reconsidering, resulted in diving stock prices and a massive pay cut for its CEO.

* Nintendo 3DS Circle Pad Pro. Admitting it made a mistake by failing to include a second circle pad in its new handheld, Nintendo rushed out a bulky, ugly fix that resembles in spirit Sweet Dee’s back brace in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

* Cisco Flip Cam. The ubiquity of smartphones helped Cisco shove its once-popular Flip camera into an early grave. Then the company laid off 6,500 workers.

Tech’s biggest misfires of 2011 [Engadget]

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