The Canadian smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry has announced a shift in business orientation and a return to focusing on professional users in the corporate and public sectors, anticipating a significant quarterly loss that will lead to the elimination of 4,500 jobs.
The Canadian company is preparing to officially report a net operating loss for the quarter ending August 31 in the range of $950 to $995 million, due to write-offs and other factors. Revenues are expected to be around $1.6 billion, half of which should be generated in the services department.
In a statement released on Friday, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins emphasized: “We are making difficult but necessary changes to our business to improve our position and become more competitive and to pave the way for profitable operations in the future.”
He announced that the target customer group will again be professional users in the corporate and public sectors.
At BlackBerry, they intend to eliminate 4,500 jobs, about 40 percent of the workforce, after significantly reducing the number of employees over the past 12 months. In March, they employed 12,700 workers, compared to nearly 20,000 who were employed at the peak of their business.
