BlackBerry lays off 250 workers in Canada
The company made cuts in areas that support manufacturing and R&D, according to Bloomberg.
The embattled BlackBerry will reduce its staff following a disappointing first six months of 2013.
BlackBerry has laid off 250 workers at a Waterloo, Ontario product-testing facility, the company confirmed to Bloomberg on Thursday. The jobs were cut in areas that support manufacturing and research and development, according to the BlackBerry spokesperson who confirmed the news to Bloomberg.
BlackBerry's layoffs are just the latest in a string of bad news from the company, which has so far tried unsuccessfully to regain its once-stable footing in the mobile market. BlackBerry 10, the operating system that was supposed to put the company back into play against iOS and Android, has largely fallen flat, and its Z10 touch-screen phone failed to appeal to consumers to the degree to which the company had hoped.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry has seen shareholders abandon it in droves. Since the beginning of 2013, BlackBerry shares are down 24 percent to $9.04.
Despite the cuts, BlackBerry is still a massive company with nearly 13,000 employees.