BlackBerry"s struggles in recent years have been well documented, as its share of the worldwide smartphone market has completely collapsed to less than 1%. It"s not surprising that the company has to keep reminding the world that it"s not dead yet, but despite its continuing woes, it insists that it"s still "a leader in mobile".
BlackBerry has been in the midst of a major restructuring process for the last three years, as it reshapes itself to deal with the harsh realities that it now faces, in a world where many of its former customers have moved on to other platforms. From having over 17,500 employees in 2011, the company has dramatically reduced its workforce by around 60%, to just 7,000 staff today.
But that restructuring is now, at long last, complete. In an internal memo seen by Reuters, Blackberry"s chief executive, John Chen, told staff: "We have completed the restructuring notification process, and the workforce reduction that began three years ago is now behind us."
More significantly, Chen also indicated that BlackBerry is now hiring: "Barring any unexpected downturns in the market, we will be adding headcount in certain areas such as product development, sales and customer service, beginning in modest numbers."
He added that BlackBerry"s recovery is going well, and that he expects the company to be cash flow positive by the end of this fiscal year. But he underlined the fact that there is "no margin for error to complete BlackBerry"s turnaround to success".
BlackBerry is not out of trouble yet then - but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Source: Reuters | image via CNN Mexico