Location: God's own country
Posted on: 25-09-13 09:48:19
Hello Cd's,
Heard that Blackberry is laying off 4700 people world wide and that Prem Watsa has given an offer of 4.7 billion $ to take blackberry private.
Blackberry was once a darling of waterloo. When I worked in Waterloo in 2007 in a housing company, all our clients were working at RIM. Large sub divisions was made possible because of Blackberry's employees were buying houses. Though waterloo had insurance companies and universities, new hiring was not being done and hence only employees of RIM/Blackberry were buying.
When the recession hit in 2008/09, Blackberry was still hiring in droves.
Local labor for assembly jobs and TCS employees on work permit for IT dept.. At one time, the parks of KW used to be filled with these IT people and their spouses (who were often uneducated) and the whole park used to have the chatter in Hindi. Most TCS employees were working on SAP software.
So how is the situation now? Is IT dept workforce affected ? I know that some Desi PR's on SAP were laid off. Are TCS employee's still working at blackberry? Who are buying houses at KW are these days?
Any info. appriciated !!
Murali
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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
Quote:
Originally posted by tamilkuravan
So how is the situation now? Is IT dept workforce affected ? I know that some Desi PR's on SAP were laid off. Are TCS employee's still working at blackberry? Who are buying houses at KW are these days?
Murali
Hello DC,
Situation is great. IT dept workforce not affected. TCS employees still working at blackberry. These days some architects are buying houses. Planning to invest some?
Things in Waterloo are not hot or selling within days but not totally crashed like Windsor or Detroit.
In the last few years lot of small tech companies came up and in addition to that, the established universities ( Laurier and U of W ) should keep the Waterloo city afloat.
After BlackBerry it will be tough for Waterloo to see the market heights it saw in 2006 - 2007 but I think it will stabilize.
another favour in Waterloo region is that the proximity to Toronto and the GO link to Union station. this will help some people to keep their houses and commute to Toronto.
all in all, yes it will impact but not as much as to crash the whole real estate market
See this link
http://www.kwar.ca/waterloo-region-housing-market/
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Non illigitamus carborundum
Hello T.K.
THE STAR ON LAYOFFS
http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/09/18/blackberry_could_lay_off_up_to_40_per_cent_of_staff_report.html
There is a proposal floating that says, BB will be privatzed, which means that they need not report any earnings or losses to anyone after the privatization.
NEWS from Blackberry Financials. :
Company expects GAAP net operating loss of approximately $950 million to $995 million; loss includes a primarily non-cash, pre-tax inventory charge of approximately $930 million to $960 million resulting from the increasingly competitive business environment impacting BlackBerry smartphone volumes, and a pre-tax restructuring charge of $72 million
Company expects to report revenue for the second quarter of approximately $1.6 billion; recognizes sales of approximately 3.7 million smartphones in the second quarter
Company to refocus on enterprise and prosumer market, offering end-to-end solutions, including hardware, software and services
Future smartphone portfolio will transition from 6 devices to 4; focusing on enterprise and prosumer-centric devices, including 2 high-end devices and 2 entry-level devices
Company announces restructuring plans, including reduction of approximately 4,500 employees; targets reduction of its operating expenditures by approximately 50% by end of Q1 Fiscal 2015
Company sees increasing penetration of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) with more than 25,000 commercial and test servers installed to date, up from 19,000 in July 2013
Special Committee of the Board continues to evaluate strategic alternatives
Waterloo, ON – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ:BBRY; TSX:BB), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today announced certain preliminary financial results for the three months ended August 31, 2013 and provided an update on business operations.
- See more at: http://www.netnewsledger.com/2013/09/23/blackberry-trading-halted/#sthash.5tbyTkIU.dpuf
http://www.netnewsledger.com/2013/09/23/blackberry-trading-halted/
Plans are there to lay off a lot of the locals here. Nothing has been finalized as their services will be required by the new buyer. All the heads are on the chopping block.
The ones who will be let go will get a good package at the time of leaving. A few will enjoy the other benefits provided and will search for suitable openings. There is a rumor that a thousand or so have been absorbed by local software developers right here. Since the lay offs are World Wide, the locals though have an idea of as to the lay offs, are expecting a very soft landing.
You have to bear in mind that BB has a Positive Cash Balance and is an ongoing concern of very high caliber IT company with excellent Hardware. It is just a bad situation as regards timing of their introduction of their New Products and also that they had very poor research staff with shortage of time at their disposal to speed things up to bring them to the market to compete with Apple, Nokia and Google Andriod, not to mention the Samsung devices. There is a possibility that the manufacturing part might branch off or get sold.
I don't see anything changing for the next year. What comes after that, depends upon who takes over and what their plans are to improve the sales of their materials and of course, the addition of other software to the existing OS to enhance their capabilities and make it versatile. They have a great potential but lack of a vision for the future.
It is the news of the day, and you asked. Njoy.
FH.
TK, We all know the Kitchner-Waterloo area is very near and dear to you, even if you're not in Canada.
So after BlackBerry's mass lay-off announcement, here's Google announcing their entry into Waterloo. Read on....
Google picks Waterloo for tech hub
Google selects Waterloo to be one of seven tech hubs, dedicated to helping developers and startups.
http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2013/09/25/google_picks_waterloo_for_tech_hub.html
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SS
Reiki Grand Master
Location: God's own country
Posted on: 26-09-13 00:48:06
SS,
Read the news about Google having a HUB in Waterloo, before I read your post.
However, it is just a hub and not some research facility. Do you think it will bring jobs to the KW region (not that I care).
However, my posting was to find out if TCS employees are still being employed in Blackberry or they were given the go? I know of many Canadian citizens who used to work in IT dept. of blackberry having been laid off over a year ago. Some were working in SAP and other's were even directors (though desi) who had been with blackberry since inception, but then given the boot !!!
Peace by murali !!
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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
Location: God's own country
Posted on: 26-09-13 00:49:36
SS,
Read the news about Google having a HUB in Waterloo, before I read your post.
However, it is just a hub and not some research facility. Do you think it will bring jobs to the KW region (not that I care).
However, my posting was to find out if TCS employees are still being employed in Blackberry or they were given the go? I know of many Canadian citizens who used to work in IT dept. of blackberry having been laid off over a year ago. Some were working in SAP and other's were even directors (though desi) who had been with blackberry since inception, but then given the boot !!!
Peace by murali !!
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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.
