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BlackBerry Takes A $900M+ Hit On Unsold Phones, Laying Off 4,500

By TechTaffy Desk

BlackBerry_1BlackBerry is laying off 4,500 employees as the company takes a quarterly loss of $930 to $960 million. The smartphone-maker released the numbers a week ahead of its earnings call.

BlackBerry’s loss is primarily the result of unsold inventory, specifically BlackBerry Z10 devices, as well as a $72 million hit in corporate restructuring costs.

Thorsten Heins (President and CEO, BlackBerry): We are implementing the difficult, but necessary operational changes announced today to address our position in a maturing and more competitive industry, and to drive the company toward profitability.  Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user.

BlackBerry expects revenues for the second quarter of approximately $1.6 billion, of which approximately 50% is expected to be service revenue. For the second quarter, the company expects to recognize hardware revenue on approximately 3.7 million BlackBerry smartphones.

During the second quarter, approximately 5.9 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold to end customers.

[Image courtesy: BlackBerry]

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