Recent news coming from BlackBerry have been mostly positive in recent weeks but that changed again today. The company today laid off another 120 employees in Waterloo, Ontario. All were part of BlackBerry’s product development and wireless technology team. According to a statement issued by the company:
“BlackBerry is working hard to return to profitability and we continue to optimize our resources to meet our mandatory operational targets. As such, this week’s employee reductions impact BlackBerry’s U.S. and Canadian operations with approximately 120 employees in the Waterloo, Ont., area. These employees were part of BlackBerry’s product development and wireless technology team.”
The affected employees all worked in the BlackBerry 2 building. It was recently sold to the University of Waterloo along with four other ones. It will be leased back for up to five years.
It’s not the first time that BlackBerry laid off employees in its hometown. The last such action saw some 300 BlackBerry employees get laid off in the Waterloo region back in October 2013.
If there is a silver lining in this news, it is that these layoffs were part of a larger workforce reduction plan announced last September rather than additional ones. In all, some 4,500 jobs will have been cut by the time this reduction comes to a close in May 2014.
Source : CBC News