WSJ: BlackBerry to lay off up to 40% of its workforce

Even though BlackBerry just announced its Z30 flagship phablet on Wednesday, the company apparently has big plans for drastically reducing its staff in the near future. Unnamed sources tell The Wall Street Journal that BlackBerry is planning to slash its workforce by as much as 40% by the end of the year with layoffs that  “will cut across all departments and will occur in waves.” News of massive layoffs, while grim, isn’t very surprising since BlackBerry’s board of directors is trying to find a buyer for the troubled company by November. BlackBerry director Bert Nordberg also recently said that the company was likely to sell off several parts to become a smaller niche player, which means that it won’t need nearly as many employees going forward.