Big is certainly not beautiful during this Great Recession.

Having committed trillions of dollars to bailouts, we scorn the concept of "too big to fail." We worry about gargantuan financial firms that pose "systemic risk" to national economies. We second-guess our gas-guzzling cars, cavernous houses, and long commutes.

As the wheels fell off the U.S. economy in 2008, few of the Philadelphia region's biggest companies got bigger.

Thanks to a spectacular retreat in the stock market, most are worth less than they were a year ago.

The standard way to figure out what any public company is worth is to multiply the number of common shares outstanding by its stock price. The result is called a company's market value, or market capitalization, because it reflects what investors say they believe an enterprise is worth.

Like the tide, when the stock market rises or falls significantly, it lifts or lowers the values of public companies. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 34 percent over the 52 weeks ended May 29. So while it is a given that there was major leakage in corporate market caps, the amount of value destruction is staggering.

Collectively, the 100 companies in the Philadelphia region with the biggest market caps lost $108 billion in market value over the last year. The decline in Comcast Corp. shares accounted for one-quarter of that drop.

There are many new names on this year's list. Last year, a company needed to have a market value of at least $177 million to make the cut. This year, No. 100 is Broomall's Alliance Bancorp Inc. of Pennsylvania at $58.1 million.

Acquisitions removed some companies, including Rohm & Haas Co., Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp., and Ikon Office Solutions Inc.

They were scooped up in high-profile transactions struck before the September collapse of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. sent world markets into a panic.

Two companies simply lost so much value that they dropped off the list. Advanta Corp., a credit card marketer in Spring House that has struggled mightily, lost 92 percent of its market value over the last year. Radio-station operator Entercom Communications Corp., of Bala Cynwyd, lost 84 percent.

Some stock-price swoons were no less spectacular, but they did not result in the companies' dropping off the list. No. 95 Rait Financial Trust, which provides debt financing to the commercial real estate industry, lost 85 percent of its value, or $472 million.

And the market cap of Technitrol Inc., which makes components for electronics and electrical equipment, fell 84 percent, or $651 million. Quite a haircut, but it merely caused the Trevose company to slip to No. 78 from No. 56 in 2008.

The market values of 12 of the Top 100 companies rose over the last year. The biggest gain (172 percent) was experienced by Hemispherx Biopharma Inc. Starting in early May, the penny stock spiked higher on speculation that the Food and Drug Administration would approve the Philadelphia company's experimental Ampligen to treat chronic fatigue syndrome.

Here is how the region's five most valuable companies fared over the last year:

Comcast Corp.

Philadelphia

Founded in 1963

Chairman/CEO: Brian L. Roberts

Nasdaq: CMCSA