Global 500: 20 money losers

This man-behind-the-curtain in the consumer electronics world provides manufacturing services to brand-name makers of cellphones, PCs, wireless routers, appliances, printers, medical devices, and even car parts who outsource work to the Singapore-based company and its factories throughout China, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.

An extended global consumer slowdown, especially in the United States, is hurting Flextronics. Thanks to a 19% drop in revenues in the second half, the company took a $5.9 billion writedown on its value, including on Solectron, a competitor acquired at the market's peak in 2007. Bankruptcies of some big tech companies, notably Nortel, also forced writedowns on the value of machines once used to service those customers.

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