Ticker: AMD
YTD stock performance: -56%
Market cap: $1.8 billion
Fortune 500 rank: 378
In 2011, AMD (AMD, Fortune 500) announced sweeping layoffs that would cut 1,400 positions, about 10% of its workforce. The move was dramatic, but it wasn't the end of the chipmaker's problems. In the fall the company announced another round of layoffs, this time slashing 15% of positions from the payroll.
The slumping global market for PCs has hit AMD hard. The company is the second-largest producer of PC processors, and was seemingly blindsided by consumers' movement away from computers toward smartphones and tablets. It's now scrambling to catch up by focusing on the mobile market. The new strategy goes big on chips for handheld devices.
That strategy may never be fully realized. Despite the best efforts of management, it could already be too late for the company to right itself. Sustained heavy losses have depleted cash reserves. Now, high levels of debt have investors worried that the company won't be able to hold on long enough to profit from mobile gains.
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/investing/2012/12/20/fortune-500-worst-stocks.fortune/7.html