BlackBerry lays off workers in Florida and Waterloo
BlackBerry Ltd. confirmed another round of layoffs Friday, this time affecting 75 employees in Sunrise, Fla. and about 125 in Canada.
The software and handset maker initially sent out a statement saying the cuts affected “a small number of employees,” then updated it to clarify about 200 jobs were affected. BlackBerry is still hiring “in those areas of our business that will drive growth,” the statement said.
The cuts are the latest in a turnaround strategy that has seen BlackBerry cut its workforce to 6,225 employees, as of fiscal 2015, from 17,500 in 2011.
Gary Klassen, BlackBerry’s director of software architecture and innovation who created the popular BBM messaging service, was among the cuts, according to a report from MobileSyrup.
The cuts at the Sunrise manufacturing facility were disclosed in an online posting by Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity. They started Thursday and will continue through Feb. 26, according to the posting.
In September, the Waterloo, Ont.- based company released its Priv handset, which is powered by Google’s Android operating system instead of its own BB10 operating system.
The company is trying to return to profitability by focusing on its patents and software for business, shifting emphasis away from handset sales.
Richard Tse, an analyst with Comark Securities Inc. who covers BlackBerry, said layoffs aren’t surprising given the company’s shifting focus.
“If you kind of put it all together, I think they are getting some momentum on the software side,” Tse said. “I think it’s going to take a bit of time to play out. There are certainly signals that some of the pieces are working.”