BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) Lays Off 65 Employees

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BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has cut 65 jobs reflecting its approach to revive itself by focusing on the enterprise market. All 65 employees were engaged in developing mobile apps for consumers. The Canadian smartphone, in an emailed statement Tuesday, told WSJ that the layoffs aims to focus on realigning the resources to take forward the new programs, which would enhance the enterprise application development.

BlackBerry Amazon deal to blame?

Number of employees dedicated towards developing apps for enterprise customers will be 100 following the latest layoffs.

Slashing the jobs followed the deal between BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Amazon, where the former will be able to gain access to the App store of the later for mobile devices to penetrate its mobile phones deeply in the consumer market.

Analysts feel that reducing headcount from the developer’s relation staff is relevant in context of BlackBerry’s deal with Amazon. Direction in which BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is heading is clear. Analysts feel that the developer relations division was not fully dedicated to the enterprise application development.

Part of the bigger plan

The recent job cuts are trifling percentage of 4,500 employees, who were laid off since last September, after the company announced global headcount cut by 40% to bring down the cost and contain losses amidst narrowing market shares compared to adversaries such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

A BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) spokesman said in an email that the company has made focused efforts to comply with the previously announced head count reduction activity and majority of the plan has been completed since the first announcement made in September 2013.

The statement further said, “We recognize our local employees’ hard work on behalf of our company, and the difficulty of this news.”

However, the recent layoff was largely unexpected going by the earlier statements of CEO John Chen as well as John Sims, president of Global Enterprise Services, who said that layoff process would be closed by the end of May. The authorities vowed to assist the employees in every possible way.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is still counting on its smartphone segments and expects to generate profits by selling more units, but its primary focus has shifted to the traditional enterprise customers, to whom the company is aiming to sell higher margin mobile management software and security services.

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