BlackBerry to Lay Off 200 Employees
February 05 2016 - 04:40PM
Dow Jones News
BlackBerry Ltd. said on Friday it would lay off about 200
employees at its Canadian headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, and at
a satellite office in Sunrise, Fla., as the struggling smartphone
maker tries to reinvent itself as a provider of mobile security and
software services for enterprise customers.
BlackBerry had a total of 6,225 employees at the end of its last
fiscal year in February 2015.
The company had previously gone through several rounds of
painful layoffs after its attempt to compete in the consumer
smartphone space fell flat. In 2014, BlackBerry Chief Executive
John Chen told employees that years of layoffs had come to an end.
But the company has since continued to make small, selective cuts
to its workforce.
The company's handset business has shrunk as Mr. Chen outsourced
device manufacturing, narrowed its device lineup and more recently
turned to a rival operating system, Android, to power its newest
phone. At the same time, BlackBerry has spent close to $850 million
on acquisitions in little over a year as part of its investment in
higher-margin software and services to manage and secure corporate
and government mobile networks.
"As BlackBerry continues to execute its turnaround plan, we
remain focused on driving efficiencies across our global
workforce," and "as a result a small number of employees have been
impacted in Waterloo and Sunrise, Fla.," the company said in a
statement.
BlackBerry said it is "actively recruiting" in areas that will
fuel growth, without providing specifics.
Still, the cuts may raise concerns among investors over the
company's turnaround effort since they come weeks before the end of
the company's latest quarter.
A BlackBerry spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the
statement.
In New York, BlackBerry was recently down 3.7% at $7.13.
Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2016 16:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
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