BlackBerry Will Reportedly Lay Off 40 Percent Of Its Employees

BlackBerry has been in the news a lot recently, ever since it announced that its considering a sale. Only today the company announced its new phablet, the much rumored BlackBerry Z30. Hours after that, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company might lay off 40 percent of its employees by the end of this year. The move is said to affect employees across all departments, it may see thousands of people losing their jobs. A spokesperson for the company told WSJ that “organizational moves” will continue to take place so that BlackBerry has “the right people in the right roles” to lead the drive for new opportunities in mobile computing.

There has been a lot of speculation about the ailing Canadian manufacturer’s future. Rumors suggest that there isn’t much interest in a whole acquisition of the company, some believe that it will be broken up and sold off in parts. According to analyst estimates, its patent portfolio alone could be worth as much as $5 billion. BlackBerry is said to be pushing for a quick sale by November, but up till now there have been no reports of interest being shown in an outright acquisition. BlackBerry has said that it is also considering partnerships and alliances, but none have materialized as of now.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: BlackBerry