BlackBerry to axe 4,500 jobs globally

BlackBerry has announced it has at least US$930 million worth of unsold inventory, and is expecting to slash its global workforce by 4,500.

The company has released a statement reporting it has a net operating loss of nearly US$1 billion, and will be aiming to reduce its expenditure by 50% by the end of Q1 Fiscal 2015.

“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,” Thorsten Heins, president and chief executive officer of BlackBerry, said.

Currently, BlackBerry has 11,500 employees worldwide, and it is not yet clear if there are specific divisions more at risk of being made redundant. Enquiries made to BlackBerry by Human Resources were not answered at the time of publication.

However, there were unconfirmed reports by Cantech Letter earlier this month that BlackBerry had already made half its sales force in Waterloo, Ontario, where the company is headquartered.

The company said it will be refocusing its efforts on the enterprise and high-end consumer markets, and will be trimming their product portfolio from six devices to four.