It looks like BlackBerry's attempts to survive by launching a new operating system and two new smartphones has failed.
The company formerly known as Research in Motion says it's cutting another 4,500 jobs - that's 45% of its workforce - and expects to announce a quarterly loss of up to $995m.
BlackBerry, which has been pushed into fourth place in world smartphone sales by Microsoft, released a statement on its plans:
And that last point is an important one. Its corporate-talk for selling off the business, either in its entirety or in parts.
- Company to refocus on enterprise and prosumer market, offering end-to-end solutions, including hardware, software and services
- Future smartphone portfolio will transition from 6 devices to 4; focusing on enterprise and prosumer-centric devices, including 2 high-end devices and 2 entry-level devices
- Company announces restructuring plans, including reduction of approximately 4,500 employees; targets reduction of its operating expenditures by approximately 50% by end of Q1 Fiscal 2015
- Company sees increasing penetration of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) with more than 25,000 commercial and test servers installed to date, up from 19,000 in July 2013
- Special Committee of the Board continues to evaluate strategic alternatives
It's the same position Nokia found itself in - expect BlackBerry doesn't have a sugar daddy called Microsoft.
RIP BlackBerry.
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