BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, shares suspended
Blackberry outage in Europe, the company’s second major breakdown in the last year.
BlackBerry announced on Friday that it will cut 4,500 jobs and that its shares have been suspended after a second quarter loss of $995 million.
The layoffs mean about 40 percent of the smartphone company's worldwide workforce will be eliminated.
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Most of BlackBerry's losses are the result of a write-off of unsold phones and $72 million in restructuring charges. Two of six phones currently being sold by the company will also be discontinued.
News of the job cuts came after trading of BlackBerry shares was halted suddenly on Friday afternoon. At the time trading in BBRY shares was stopped, its stock price was $10.27 per share, down 2.38 percent for the day.
Shares in Canada-based Research in Motion, BlackBerry's parent company, have also regressed by 44 percent from the 52-week high of $18.32 that it hit in January.
The last time BlackBerry stopped trading of its shares was when it announced it was looking for a buyer. Once a stock is halted, it cannot be traded until an announcement is made about any changes to come.