Report: BlackBerry to cut current workforce by 40 percent

A report from the Wall Street Journal claims that BlackBerry is preparing to make some major cuts to its workforce that could affect as many as 40 percent of its current employees.

BlackBerry may be publicly hyping up the launch of its newest smartphone, the Z30, today, but behind closed doors the company may be about to make some really hard decisions. That's the word coming from the Wall Street Journal today, which claims, via unnamed sources, that BlackBerry will be cutting down its workforce by as much as 40 percent very soon.

The report says the latest amount of mass layoffs will be handled in waves and will cut across all departments. In 2012, BlackBerry, under its old name Research in Motion, gave final notices to 5,000 employees. In July, 250 more jobs were cut at the company and several dozen other employees, mostly in sales, were laid off just last week. It is believed that BlackBerry has about 12,000 workers at the moment.

Officially, BlackBerry is keeping mum about any upcoming changes to its workforce, with a spokesperson saying only, "Organizational moves will continue to occur to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to drive new opportunities in mobile computing." A few weeks ago, the company confirmed that it is looking into "strategic alternatives," including selling all or part of its business. It's possible that BlackBerry believes that additional job cuts could make the company more attractive to prospective buyers.

Source: Wall Street Journal