Following a fresh round of rumors that Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings has put together billions of dollars in backing as it prepares a takeover bid for BlackBerry, the company has confirmed a fresh round of layoffs. The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday followed up earlier reports with the claim that dozens of workers on BlackBerry’s sales team have been laid off. “I can confirm a small number of employees were laid off today,” a BlackBerry spokesperson said in response to the claim. Earlier reports had made the layoffs seem much more severe, suggesting that as much as half of BlackBerry’s sales team had been let go. It is unclear if this new round of layoffs is related to an imminent Fairfax buyout, the possibility of which has been tossed around since BlackBerry announced last month that it was exploring a possible sale. BlackBerry shares were down 1.8% on the news ahead of Tuesday’s session after gaining more than 6% on Monday to close at $11.53.
New round of layoffs hits BlackBerry as takeover rumors heat up
Published Sep 10th, 2013 8:00AM EDT
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Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
