BlackBerry to lay off employees worldwide: integrating smartphone business?

Beijing time, May 23 morning news, BlackBerry announced on Friday that it will integrate its smartphone businesses scattered around the world and will lay off employees worldwide. The company is currently working to turn its smartphone business around.

A BlackBerry spokesman declined to disclose the scale of the layoffs, which totaled about 7,000 employees as of September 2014.


"We have decided to integrate our device software, hardware and applications businesses, which will impact employees around the world," BlackBerry said in a statement.
BlackBerry, whose share of the global smartphone market has shrunk to less than 1%, has narrowed its target audience to financial experts and government employees who are keen on information security.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen is beefing up BlackBerry's software business, developing more apps for other manufacturers' devices. Although revenue is still falling, Chen has managed to stem the cash hemorrhage at BlackBerry, which turned profitable at the end of last year.
BlackBerry shares rose 2% to $10.48 by the close of trading on Friday. So far this year, BlackBerry shares are down 4.6%.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.