BLACKBERRY TO LAY OFF 4,500 EMPLOYEES

BlackBerry is to lay off 4,500 employees, around 40 percent of its workforce, and retreat from the consumer market. The layoff news comes in an unexpected early earnings guidance release, in which the struggling manufacturer reveals it expects to book losses totalling almost $1 billion in the most recent quarter.The massive loss is mainly attributable to the disastrous sales performance of the company's Z10 smartphone, its first to run its new BlackBerry 10 OS. BlackBerry says it will take a "primarily non-cash, pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments in the second quarter of approximately $930 million to $960 million" due mainly to the Z10. In the second quarter, the company shipped just 3.7 million smartphones, most of which were running BlackBerry 7, the company's older operating system. The company was shy in revealing exactly how many BlackBerry 10 devices it sold last quarter.The reason for the disparity between BlackBerry 10 and 7 numbers this quarter appears to be extremely over-zealous shipping in the previous quarter, leading to lots of unsold Z10s and, ultimately, the multi-million dollar inventory charge. Although BlackBerry would not break even without the charge, the shortfall would have been more akin to the meagre 84 million dollars loss booked last year.With the bbm almost available(anxiously waiting lol) on android and ios,things might actually get worse..eyah