It was a dark day on Wall Street for BlackBerry on Friday as the Canadian smartphone maker announced the regrettable news that 35% of its workforce is being laid off.
BlackBerry will take a massive loss of close to $1 billion in its second quarter, the company announced.
The failure of the BlackBerry Z10 is the primary reason for the news that close to 5,000 people will lose their jobs.
The loss is mainly the result of a write-off of unsold BlackBerry phones, as well as $72 million in restructuring charges.
The company said that it would discontinue two of the six phones it offers.
“We are implementing the difficult, but necessary operational changes announced today to address our position in a maturing and more competitive industry, and to drive the company toward profitability,” says Thorsten Heins, President and Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry.
“Going forward,” he added, “we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user. This puts us squarely on target with the customers that helped build BlackBerry into the leading brand today for enterprise security, manageability and reliability.”
