BlackBerry completes restructuring process, expects to start recruitment in “modest numbers”
BlackBerry closes chapter on restructuring process : internal memo — (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd has concluded a protracted and painful restructuring process and is back on a growth footing …
Context & Ripple Effects
The restructuring BlackBerry is declaring over traces back more than two years: the company hired a law firm to advise on the process back in April 2012 (an exclusive Reuters report at the time), and by July 2013 it had cut 250 people from its new-product testing and R&D group. An internal memo now frames that chapter as closed, with the company 'back on a growth footing' and recruiting set to resume in modest numbers.
The timing matters because the memo lands mid-pivot: since May and June 2014 BlackBerry has launched Project Ion for securely connecting sensors and cars to a cloud backend, rolled out BBM Protected with FIPS 140-2 encryption for enterprise messaging, and confirmed the square-screened Passport handset for September alongside the BlackBerry Assistant in OS 10.3. The pickup was broad — CNET, TechCrunch, Neowin, Ubergizmo and others all carried the story on or about August 5 — reflecting how closely the market is watching whether John Chen's stabilization holds.
First-order effects
- BlackBerry's hiring freeze effectively ends: after roughly two years of contraction dating to the 2012 restructuring engagement, the company says it will recruit again, though only in 'modest numbers'.
- Remaining employees get an official end to the uncertainty that began with the 2012 restructuring work and deepened with the July 2013 cut of 250 R&D and testing staff.
Second-order effects
- Any new headcount will likely skew toward the businesses BlackBerry has been building since spring 2014 — enterprise messaging security (BBM Protected) and the Project Ion IoT platform — rather than the hardware testing ranks it trimmed in 2013.
- Enterprise buyers weighing BlackBerry against rivals get a signal the vendor behind their encrypted messaging stack is no longer in triage mode, which matters for the eBBM suite's credibility against competing secure-messaging offerings.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, BlackBerry completes the transition from handset-first manufacturer to a smaller company whose growth engine is enterprise software and connected-device infrastructure, with the September Passport launch marking how few, more targeted devices it intends to carry forward.
- The episode is a template for distressed device makers: shrink to a survivable core under formal restructuring, then rebuild around higher-margin services — a path competitors and investors will benchmark against.
The trend: Distressed smartphone makers are using formal restructuring to shrink to a core and rebuild around enterprise software and IoT services rather than handset volume.