TAIPEI — Just two years ago, HTC, the Taipei-based mobile devices maker, was riding the crest of exploding global premium smartphone sales. It was racking up awards, a record stock price and a string of acquisitions, and was busy poaching rival executives for a continued assault on the dominance of Apple, Samsung and Research In Motion.

Those days are little more than a memory. Its stock price has plummeted more than 88 percent since its April 2011 high. Profits for the second quarter, which ended June 30, were down 83 percent. The company warned that the third quarter looked bleaker still.

It gets worse.

Several of those poached executives, brought onboard to help increase shipments and work on acquisitions have walked away, and there is a growing chorus for the ouster of the embattled chief executive, Peter Chou, as reports filter out of Taipei about an autocratic leader who is out of touch with the industry.

There were also the arrest last week of five departing executives accused of stealing company secrets and padding expense accounts. HTC had filed a complaint against the executives, who included the vice president of product design, Thomas Chien, and the research and development director Wu Chien-hung.