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RIM to cut 2,000 jobs
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CBC News- Waterloo, Ont.-based Research in Motion plans to cut about 2,000 jobs, the company announced Monday.
Once Canada's high-tech darling, the BlackBerry maker is cutting about 11 per cent of its global workforce.
"The workforce reduction is believed to be a prudent and necessary step for the long-term success of the company and it follows an extended period of rapid growth within the company whereby the workforce had nearly quadrupled in the last five years alone," RIM said in a statement.
After the jobs have been eliminated, RIM will employ 17,000 people worldwide.
The company's first-quarter profits plunged 10 per cent, its market share fell nearly five per cent in three months and its stock price dropped in half in 2011.
Business analysts have speculated part of those losses can be attributed to RIM's failure to keep up with its competitors in the communications market, such as Apple and Google. The late launch of its iPad-like tablet, the PlayBook, is considered a specific failure.
The company is also shaking up its management, as chief operating officer Don Morrison is planning to retire. Thorsten Heins will become the COO of products and sales, while Jim Rowan will become COO of the operations side.
RIM has been under pressure of late to do away with the co-CEO title, currently shared by founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.
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