By Tara Kalwarski

Most Of The World's Biggest Companies Are Much Smaller

The 20 biggest publicly traded businesses boasted a combined global market capitalization of nearly $3.5 trillion in 2008—less than the $5.3 trillion heft of 2007's leaders. Ravaged stock markets are mostly to blame, but companies outside the U.S. also suffered from currency declines against the dollar since yearend 2007.