BlackBerry to Lay Off 4,500 Employees, Will Take Nearly $1 Billion Loss

BlackBerry halted trading in stock briefly on Friday before announcing it was cutting 4,500 jobs and taking a loss of $930 million to $960 million in its second quarter.

The loss is primarily attributable to the Z10, the company said.

The layoffs, which amount to about 35% of BlackBerry's workforce, come two days after The Wall Street Journal had reported that 5,000 job cuts were coming. The loss is three times larger than had been expected. The company also claimed to have shipped 5.9 million smartphones in the last quarter, which is lower than what had been expected.

Before trading was halted, BlackBerry's stock was priced at $10.72, which was down about 90% over five years ago, but up 48% over the past year. Read more...