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"Just hours after BlackBerry unveiled a new smartphone, more bad news has emerged about the company.\nBlackBerry is said to be planning to lay off as much as 40% of its staff by the end of the year to cut costs and better position itself to compete in the smartphone market, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The company had more than 12,000 employees by last count, meaning that as many as 5,000 workers may be in danger of losing their jobs in the next couple months.\nBlackBerry declined to comment on the report. \"We will not comment on rumors and speculation,\" a rep for the company said in a statement provided to Mashable. \"As previously stated, we are in the second phase of our transformation plan. Organizational moves will continue to occur to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to drive new opportunities in mobile computing.\"\nSee also: Who Would Buy BlackBerry?\nEarlier this summer, BlackBerry confirmed laying off 250 employees and reports suggested that more layoffs might be coming. The company also laid off 5,000 employees during the 2012 fiscal year. \nThe smartphone maker has struggled to compete against businesses like Apple and Samsung in recent years. BlackBerry is now in the process of looking for a potential buyer, with the possibility that it may be sold for parts or spin out certain divisions like BBM into new businesses. \nBlackBerry stock was down more than 2% on the day following the report.\nImage: Ethan Miller/Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/09/18/blackberry-layoffs-2/>