The dwindling smartphone manufacturer will still hold onto its Waterloo headquarters.
BlackBerry Ltd. is once again making technology news, but this time it has to do with selling off the majority of its Canadian real estate as opposed to releasing a new mobile device somewhere in the world.
There is a great deal of vacant land being sold off in a new deal reached by the company.
According to the latest technology news update from BlackBerry at the time of the writing of this article, it had landed a deal that would sell off over 3 million square feet of space and vacant lands. The entire purpose is to help the company to be able to raise a significant amount of capital.
This technology news could put cash back into the hands in the money bleeding smartphone manufacturer.
Once the company has sold off the space, it will lease some of it back again, said BlackBerry on Friday. According to the company in a release that announced this deal, this strategy to sell off the land “is part of BlackBerry’s ongoing program to improve operational efficiencies, optimize resource usage and shift resources.”
The intentions for this deal had first been announced by BlackBerry in January, and it is now expending that the deal will close by the first quarter of fiscal 2015. This decision comes on the heels of massive cutbacks by the company. At last tally, there were more than 4,600 jobs slashed away as the manufacturer of mobile devices tries to claw its way back up through the billions of dollars lost throughout 2013.
The executive chair and CEO of BlackBerry, John Chen explained that by successfully selling this Canadian property, it will “help us move toward our goal of continued operational efficiency.” In his technology news statement, he went on to add that the company is maintaining its commitment to holding a strong presence within Canada, and its global headquarters will remain, as ever, in the city of Waterloo. That location is not a part of the deal that is selling off the land belonging to the company.
This five year contract will have Foxconn manufacturing BlackBerry branded mobile phones at a couple of its facilities that are located in Mexico and in Indonesia. This was revealed in a statement that was released at the end of last week. Although Foxconn may be making some of the devices that are being made, it BlackBerry will be holding onto all of its own intellectual property and will be providing product assurance on the devices that Foxconn has manufactured.