It’s quite clear now that BlackBerry will not exist in its current form this time next year. Last month, the failing company announced its intention to enter into a buyout agreement with an investor consortium led by FairFax Financial Holdings. This was just prior to its latest quarterly report, in which the company revealed a massive $965 million quarterly loss. BlackBerry is now spending its cash reserves and refocusing efforts on its enterprise services offerings. The turmoil has caused at least one major U.S. carrier to stop carrying BlackBerry smartphones in its stores.
Now, to shore up its cash reserves BlackBerry is reportedly shopping around some of its Waterloo, Ontario headquarters property in Canada. An All Things D report states that BlackBerry is shopping around its properties to various commercial real estate companies. According to the report, BlackBerry currently owns around 20 large buildings in Waterloo.
The report also quotes a BlackBerry statement asserting that the company is attempting to cut its expenditures by 50% over the next three quarters. “Optimizing” its space, as the company stated, is a start, as is yet another massive layoff of upwards of 5,000 employees.
The layoffs, however, could end up costing BlackBerry in the short term. A Bloomberg report this week shows that BlackBerry’s layoffs could end up costing the company around $400 million – four times the originally projected cost of the cuts. The report also backs up property sales claims, adding that BlackBerry may also put some of its factories and “manufacturing gear” up for sale. With the company’s cash reserves down $500 million to just $2.6 billion as of this past quarter, BlackBerry may find itself running out of cash sooner rather than later.
