Canadian BB to cut jobs worldwide, India unlikely to be affected

Canadian technology firm Blackberry is cutting jobs globally as it plans to <g data-gr-id="24">consolidates</g> its various business verticals -- device software, hardware and applications. “We have made the decision to consolidate our device software, hardware and applications business, impacting a number of employees around the world. We know that our employees have worked hard on behalf of our company and we are grateful for their commitment and contributions,” Blackberry said in a statement.

However, the process is unlikely to impact jobs in India, an industry source said. In India, the company employs less than 50 people and thus the job cut announcement is unlikely to impact headcount here. The Blackberry spokesperson did not offer any comment on the query related to a job cut in India. The loss-making company has been running <g data-gr-id="25">cost</g> optimisation programme to reduce its operational expenses and turn profitable. The company in 2012 announced to reduce headcount by 5,000 globally, equivalent to about 30 <g data-gr-id="21">per cent</g> of its total international workforce at that time.

On September 20, 2013, the company announced <g data-gr-id="22">further</g> reduction in the workforce by approximately 4,500 positions to bring the total strength to around 7,000 full-time global employees. 

As of February 28, 2015, Blackberry had 6,225 full-time employees. In 2013, Blackberry opened its Enterprise Solution centres in Mumbai and Gurgaon to focus on sales of its product to business organisations here. “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.