The bad news continues at embattled smartphone maker BlackBerry, with a further 100 jobs slashed at its Waterloo, Ontario headquarters.
Both CTV and The Wall Street Journal are reporting the job losses, which follow an earlier round of 250 job losses in July, with the company’s manufacturing and R&D support teams bearing the brunt of the cuts.
“I can confirm that BlackBerry this week informed a small number of employees of their termination, including approximately 100 employees in Waterloo,” a Blackberry spokesperson says.
“As previously stated, we are in the second phase of our transformation plan where we will be assessing our organization — from top to bottom — to ensure we have the right people in the right roles with the right skill sets to drive new opportunities in mobile computing.”
As SmartCompany reported, the troubled smartphone pioneer, then known as Research in Motion, cut 10% of its global workforce – or 2000 staff – in May last year.
The company announced the loss of a further 3000 jobs in August of last year, following the announcement of a $US518 million quarterly loss, including a quarter of its staff in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The latest job cuts cap off a week from hell at the embattled smartphone pioneer.
On Tuesday of last week, SmartCompany reported the company announced the creation of a special five-member board to examine sale options, on the same day its largest shareholder, Prem Watsa, dramatically resigned from the board of directors.
Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings – not related to the Australian media company – is the largest individual shareholder in the company, having purchased a 9.9% stake in the company for $880 million.
The resignation followed an exodus of senior executives from the company during recent weeks, including corporate information technology operations vice-president Doug Kozak, global manufacturing and supply chain senior vice-president Carmine Arabia, and service operations vice-president Graeme Whittington.
Watsa, along with the Canada Pension Plan, are shaping up as key bidders for the company.
Despite the company’s precarious situation, on Wednesday of last week it launched its new Q5 smartphone amid reports entrepreneur and angel investor Robin Chan made a secret offer to Heins to save the company between June and August of last year.
Chan would have switched the company’s devices to Android.
Yesterday, reports surfaced the company is cutting smartphone production by 10%, on top of a further 50% cut a month earlier, with one leading analyst reporting weak initial demand for the company’s new Q5 smartphone from retailers and carriers.
It has also emerged bankers from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets have contacted a range of potential investors, including private equity firms and competitors about a possible takeover, but have found little interest.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
