Rumours RIM cutting 3,000 more jobs ‘not right,’ says company rep
by Dan Ilika
Plans still to layoff 5,000 as part of operating cost saving contrary to reports of more job cuts
Waterloo, Ont.—A Research In Motion (RIM) spokesperson has shot down rumours the device maker plans to layoff an additional 3,000 workers to the 5,000 job cuts announced earlier this year.
In response to questions about rumours surfacing that RIM plans to hand out pink slips to 3,000 more employees as early as Aug. 13, company spokesperson Nick Manning said the reports were “not right,” and that the plans will see employee numbers drop from 16,500 to 11,500 over the course of the fiscal year.
“(CEO) Thorsten (Heins) talked about making these 5,000 reductions over the course of the remainder of the fiscal year,” Manning said in an interview. “Obviously that process has started and will continue throughout the remainder of the fiscal year (but) I think I can fairly clearly say it’s not right to speculate that these are 3,000 in addition to the 5,000.”
The 5,000 confirmed job cuts were announced as part of company-wide plans to reduce operating costs by $1-billion this fiscal year.
Rim’s fiscal year ends March 28, 2013.
According to Manning, RIM is working to ensure the job cuts don’t effect customer support, BlackBerry service levels or the yet-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 operating system.
