Blackberry to hand over pink slips to employees

NEW DELHI: Struggling smartphone maker Blackberry, which employs about 7,000 people globally, will be resorting to layoffs in order to make its device business profitable.

The software, hardware and applications side of the business is likely to get a hit, however, it would hardly have any impact on India.

"As the company moves into its next stage of the turnaround, our intention is to reallocate resources in ways that will best enable us to capitalise on growth opportunities while driving toward sustainable profitability across all facets of our business," BlackBerry said in a statement.

Blackberry’s rivals Apple and Samsung have eaten up a major chunk of market share of the Waterloo-based company, which was considered a titan in the smartphone business.

"One of our priorities is making our device business profitable," BlackBerry said.

"At the same time, we must grow software and licensing revenues. You will see in the coming months a significant ramping up in our customer-facing activities in sales and marketing.”