BlackBerry announces major job cuts, quarterly net operating loss of $1 billion

[djk]

http://bgr.com/2013/09/20/blackberry-layoffs-announcement/

Time is running out for BlackBerry. The company announced on Friday that it is cutting 4,500 jobs and that it will report a net operating loss of nearly $1 billion in its next quarterly earnings report. The company also braced investors for a major quarterly revenue miss and said its preliminary earnings results show that it generated $1.6 billion in sales on the quarter, or nearly half of Wall Street expectations of $3.06 billion. The company only sold around 3.7 million smartphones on the quarter, a huge drop from the 6.8 million smartphones it sold in the previous quarter.

Forget about "I don't mind a smartphone with no apps" line. Soon, there's probably going to be more BIS push email, no Blackberry App World, no OS updates and so on.

 

[Stoo]

I had a few BBs, but then moved to iPhone begrudgingly. And will never go back. Possibly Android, but unless BB gets it's act together, IMHO, they're done.

Previous management completely misread the market and will probably never catch up, let alone set the pace. Even the new phones aren't really any different than the old ones.

It's too bad, since it was such an important part of the economy, and in my part of the world, a HUGE employer.

 

[Rockslinger]

Another Canadian success story. The Harper Tories must be happy.

 

[djk]

Why, oh why, did I not short a few thousand units of BB when rumors of the job cuts were reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday? I could have made some decent coin.

In all seriousness, I feel for the 4,500 that lost their jobs today; it isn't going to be a good Thanksgiving and holiday season for these folks. I remember being in a bar a couple of years ago, when the Playbook came out, and a group of people were talking to a guy who worked for Blackberry. One guy in the group was like "That Playbook looks pretty good, eh?"

Well we all know how that played out. I wonder if that fellow who worked at Blackberry still works there; probably not.

100000+

 

[Richard.TO]

Why, oh why, did I not short a few thousand units of BB when rumors of the job cuts were reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday? I could have made some decent coin.

In all seriousness, I feel for the 4,500 that lost their jobs today; it isn't going to be a good Thanksgiving and holiday season for these folks. I remember being in a bar a couple of years ago, when the Playbook came out, and a group of people were talking to a guy who worked for Blackberry. One guy in the group was like "That Playbook looks pretty good, eh?"

Well we all know how that played out. I wonder if that fellow who worked at Blackberry still works there; probably not.

You're right, but hindsight is 20/20, I would have felt more comfortable buying puts instead of shorting BB.