RIM planning to eliminate between 2,000–6,000 jobs: report
28 May 2012
Research In Motion (RIM), the struggling maker of BlackBerry smartphones, is planning to eliminate between 2,000 – 6,000 jobs worldwide in the coming week, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper today reported, citing several people close to the company.
The job losses are expected to affect RIM's legal, marketing, sales, operations and human resources division, the report said.
Once a dominant force in the smartphone segment, RIM currently has about 16,500 staff worldwide, down from its peak of around 20,000.
The last job cuts came at RIM in July 2011, when the company eliminated 2,000 jobs as part of its plan to reduce costs amid falling sales.
Several high-level employees have recently left the company, including global head of sales Patrick Spence, who is set to take a senior level job at networked audio company Sonos.
Citing several sources, Reuters also reported that the Ontario-based company has been axing a lot of junior employees for the past several months in what has come to be known internally as "Goodbye Thursdays," because the cuts typically occur a day before the weekend.