Still struggling, BlackBerry lays off 250 more employees
Things still aren't looking up for BlackBerry, as the struggling Canadian phone maker revealed Thursday it will lay off 250 more employees as part of a continuing plan to cut costs and rescale its operations.
BlackBerry made the job cuts earlier this week and confirmed the personnel decisions on Thursday in a statement to AllThingsD. The 250 employees worked at a Waterloo, Ontario, product-testing facility, and they are the latest among thousands that BlackBerry (n?e Research In Motion) has cut over the past few years.
The layoffs were not entirely without warning. BlackBerry confirmed during its annual shareholder meeting that ? following a dismal quarter that saw the firm losing $84 million ? more layoffs were coming. In the last fiscal year, BlackBerry has let go of more than 5,000 staff.
The shift in the smartphone market brought about by the entry of Apple's iPhone caught BlackBerry unprepared, and the phone maker has been struggling to adjust ever since. In its heyday, BlackBerry shipped upwards of 14 million phones in a quarter, but that number has fallen to just 6.8 million this past quarter, with the majority of those not even running the company's most recent operating system.
BlackBerry's attempts at responding to Apple's rise have failed repeatedly. The company lost half a billion dollars on its poorly-received PlayBook iPad competitor, and the head of the division that released that device is now leaving the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The release of BlackBerry 10 and the two flagship devices running the new operating system was meant to bring the company back to some form of relevance. Sales of those units, though, have apparently fizzled, leading to last quarter's disappointing numbers.
BlackBerry officials still cast the layoffs and restructurings as a means of creating a leaner, more efficient company.
?These employees were part of the New Product Testing Facility, a department that supports BlackBerry?s manufacturing and R&D efforts,? spokesman Alex Kinsella said. ?This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing.?
BlackBerry made the job cuts earlier this week and confirmed the personnel decisions on Thursday in a statement to AllThingsD. The 250 employees worked at a Waterloo, Ontario, product-testing facility, and they are the latest among thousands that BlackBerry (n?e Research In Motion) has cut over the past few years.
The layoffs were not entirely without warning. BlackBerry confirmed during its annual shareholder meeting that ? following a dismal quarter that saw the firm losing $84 million ? more layoffs were coming. In the last fiscal year, BlackBerry has let go of more than 5,000 staff.
The shift in the smartphone market brought about by the entry of Apple's iPhone caught BlackBerry unprepared, and the phone maker has been struggling to adjust ever since. In its heyday, BlackBerry shipped upwards of 14 million phones in a quarter, but that number has fallen to just 6.8 million this past quarter, with the majority of those not even running the company's most recent operating system.
BlackBerry's attempts at responding to Apple's rise have failed repeatedly. The company lost half a billion dollars on its poorly-received PlayBook iPad competitor, and the head of the division that released that device is now leaving the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The release of BlackBerry 10 and the two flagship devices running the new operating system was meant to bring the company back to some form of relevance. Sales of those units, though, have apparently fizzled, leading to last quarter's disappointing numbers.
BlackBerry officials still cast the layoffs and restructurings as a means of creating a leaner, more efficient company.
?These employees were part of the New Product Testing Facility, a department that supports BlackBerry?s manufacturing and R&D efforts,? spokesman Alex Kinsella said. ?This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing.?
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
BlackBerry officials still cast the layoffs and restructurings as a means of creating a leaner, more efficient company.
Translation: They're bullshitting with buzzword speak about what the real issues are.
Or, perhaps offer BlackBerry branded Android phones with BlackBerry software on it. As it currently stands though, BB10 was DOA.
Yup, this is they way a confident company acts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
So they previously fired people in marketing and sales, so their efforts there are less than they were before. Now, they're firing people in testing of new products, so they will lack some of their ability there as well.
Yup, this is they way a confident company acts.
But it looks great on the bottom line and the CEO will get a fat bonus for improving quarterly profits. Who needs stupid things like new product R&D and testing, anyway?
Last year, Heins stated that they were looking for a suitor for the company, in other words, a buyer. Samsung was mentioned by some as negotiating with them, but Samsung denied it.
What they are doing looks to me to be preparing for a company sale. They have sold plant and equipment, offices, fired many thousands from every department. Have now finally discontinued the Playbook, the "professional" tablet, and are now firing people needed to sell and evaluate new products.
Meanwhile, despite all their problems, their cash and investments keep rising. Why would that be? Blackberry supporters like to point out that cash and investment as good news. News that the company is doing well. But it isn't. It's another sign that Heins is prepping the company for a sale. That cash is now a large portion of the value of the stock, and if they can keep it up, will continue to be. But they may not be able to continue that cash rise as sales continue to fall, and profits become more difficult to come by. And those profits? They're being driven not by sales, not by a high msrp, but by the elimination of plant and staff. Shortly, they will run out of things to sell, and people to fire.
Prep for buyout
At this point in time, it's too late. It doesn't really matter what they do. They're trying to become an MDM. An MDM is a company that supply's software and services to enhance security and overall usefulness of mobile devices to business and government. But the entire MDM industry now is about $500 million a year. So even if they were able to enter this, it wouldn't save the company.
Someone needs to put this one out of its misery it is the only humane thing to do at this time.
The Governments were BB last hold out and they have already made decision to move on. You know when governments which take years to makes simply decisions are acting faster than a company can figure out what to do you know you're done.
Time to turn the lights out.
Good for you to see this. Sad for yet another bulk layoff. Too bad the company didn't act, right after the keynote on Jan 9, 2007,
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilBoogie
Good for you to see this. Sad for yet another bulk layoff. Too bad the company didn't act, right after the keynote on Jan 9, 2007,
It is quite a shame since both them and Palm could still both have had a major presence in the industry and done some great new things had they not been blinded by their arrogance.
"PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
One of the funniest CEO quotes of that decade.
The good thing is that they had several post-iPhone years to make a run at a comeback. But the old management was in denial and/or slow to react. And, consider this: if a company as loved and dominant as Microsoft couldn't muscle their way out of single-digit mobile market share with Windows Phone 7 & 8, it's probably a bigger challenge than smaller & less diversified BlackBerry can handle. So yes, unless they can do better than "iPhone Clone+," it's lights out for them.
Don't forget the AllThingsD session, referencing iTunes on Windows:
"It's like giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell"
Well my buddies still have a job, likely because they're involved in QNX, which is still a successful product outside of BB. It was fun to attend Waterloo in the 80's - so much cool stuff came out of there.
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
These employees were part of the New Product Testing Facility ...
Cutting development of new products would 1. make the new product QA group redundant and 2. reduce expenses to make the company more attractive to potential buyers.
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
This is part of the next stage of our turnaround plan to increase efficiencies and scale our company correctly for new opportunities in mobile computing.
Translation: "We're cutting expenses to make the company more attractive to potential buyers."
BlackBerry has exactly two opportunities in mobile computing: a buyout or non-existence.
I hope blackberry developers can find work on android or other java/C based platforms. But it's time for BB to go. They screwed customers for years with subpar functionality and only offered marginally better security. Then they had the audacity to be bold about their "dominance" through the face of Jim Balsillie. I hope to see better work from Ubuntu and Android to keep Apple on their toes.