Fidelity, Janus Play Manager Musical Chairs

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Big-name fund managers, in finance speak, will either be redeployed, exploring new opportunities or spending more time with their families after shake-ups on the cusp of a bull market.

Fund-manager appointments are highly coveted in the investment world, but are also fairly fickle. The real reason for some departures can be unclear. Regardless of the circumstances, here are recent changes to the largest and most well-known funds.

Fidelity Mega Cap Fund(FGRTX Quote).

Fidelity is notorious for musical chairs in its fund-management suite, presumably to keep things from stagnating. Richard Mace is the latest manager to leave his post. His departure is because of retirement rather than reassignment, according to Fidelity. Matthew Fruhan will succeed him at the helm of the Mega Cap Fund.

The $315 million mutual fund invests in Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote), Microsoft(MSFT Quote), ConocoPhillips(COP Quote) and JPMorgan(JPM Quote). Over the past year, Fidelity Mega Cap has barely outperformed its benchmark, the S&P 500 index, by 27 basis points.

Janus Global Opportunities Fund(JGVAX Quote).

The terms of Jason Yee's departure from Janus are more murky. Janus's press release says he would be leaving to pursue other interests, but some rumblings online seem to suggest this was a long time coming. Still, the $84 million Global Opportunities Fund outperformed its benchmark, the MSCI World Index, over the past year by nearly 11 percentage points.

The main source of displeasure with Yee comes from trailing his peer group as well as several years of losses.

The Global Opportunities Fund has large stakes in News Corp.(NWSA Quote), Dell(DELL Quote) and UnitedHealth Group(UNH Quote), among others.