LOS ANGELES — Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of
BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet, said Monday that it will
cut its workforce by about 2,000 jobs and move some executives into new
roles in an effort to battle the continued growth of Google’s Android
and Apple’s iPhone.
The job cuts, which are beginning on Monday, will
leave the Canadian company with about 17,000 employees, RIM said. The
moves follow a 12 percent drop in quarterly revenue during RIM’s fiscal
first quarter, which was reported in June.
RIM said the decisions fall in line with its
“cost-optimization program,” which is “focused on eliminating
redundancies and reallocating resources to focus on areas that offer the
highest growth opportunities.”
In particular, the smartphone maker said, the layoffs
are “believed to be a prudent and necessary step for the long-term
success of the company and … (follow) an extended period of rapid
growth within the company whereby the workforce had nearly quadrupled in
the last five years alone.” It seems that RIM now believes it grew
bigger than it needs to be.
Among the handful of executive shuffles at RIM
announced Monday, Don Morrison, one of the company’s three chief
operating officers, is retiring; his job will be divided between the
other two remaining COOs. Thorsten Heins will become COO of product and
sales, and Jim Rowan will be chief operating officer of operations.
“All product engineering functions, including both
hardware and software teams, are being consolidated under Thorsten’s
direction,” RIM said. “This consolidation of product engineering
functions is expected to both produce greater efficiencies and help to
accelerate new product introductions in the future.”
Rowan’s expanded role will make him “responsible for
manufacturing, global supply chain and repair services,” RIM said, and
he will also oversee the organizational development and facilities
management functions.
Brian Bidulka, RIM’s chief financial officer, and Rowan will oversee the cost-cutting program.
The job cuts and executive changes might leave
analysts, investors and consumers not feeling too confident about what
direction RIM is going in. The company once ruled the smartphone market
with email-friendly phones loved by IT departments at businesses
worldwide because of security features such as in-phone encryption and
remote shut-off.
“On the one hand, it is positive to see that the
company is not standing still and taking steps to lower costs and
streamline its operations. But on the other hand, one has to wonder if
this is going to make its execution crisper,” Shaw Wu, a tech analyst
with the Sterne Agee investment firm, said in a statement. “One has to
wonder if they can do better with less headcount. In addition, one never
wants to see a company cut investment in a fast-growing market
especially when its competitors (Apple, Google and Microsoft) continue
to invest aggressively.”
RIM also hasn’t found much success with its PlayBook
tablet computer — a speedy and easy-to-use gadget that lacks many
features consumers expect, such as a native email application.
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