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BlackBerry fires U.S. sales boss, more layoffs coming

Published Jul 10th, 2013 9:10AM EDT
BlackBerry Layoffs 2013

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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins talked a good game at Tuesday’s shareholder meeting and BlackBerry shares climbed 3% after hours as a result. The struggling smartphone maker is still in survival mode as is desperately tries to compete in a market that continues to slip from its grasp, however, and yet another round of layoffs is coming. The Wall Street Journal reports that BlackBerry fired its VP of U.S. sales Richard Piasentin last month, and it says more layoffs are coming “across middle management in the sales and support divisions.” This new round of layoffs will be in addition to the 5,000 BlackBerry workers let go in the previous fiscal year.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 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.