“Apple Inc. has all but destroyed BlackBerry Ltd.’s business model and now it’s after the Canadian company’s decimated workforce,” Armina Ligaya and Matt Hartley report for The Financial Post.
“Just days after BlackBerry Ltd. revealed plans to lay off 40% of its global workforce amid disastrous financial results, representatives from smartphone rival Apple Inc. hosted a recruitment drive roughly 20 kilometres away from the embattled technology company’s Waterloo, Ont. home base,” Ligaya and Hartley report. “‘Most positions will be based in Cupertino, CA.,’ according to a LinkedIn invite sent to certain BlackBerry employees and obtained by the Financial Post. ‘Relocation and immigration assistance will be provided for candidates that are hired, as needed.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s hoping Apple gets many fine employees from this recruitment drive.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
DCW Blackberry begins axing 4,500 employees – October 9, 2013
Beleaguered BlackBerry hit with shareholder class action lawsuit for misrepresenting state of company – October 5, 2013
Beleaguered Blackberry reports $965 million second quarter loss – September 27, 2013
T-Mobile USA stops stocking beleaguered BlackBerry’s phones – September 26, 2013
Amateur hour is over: Beleaguered BlackBerry sold to Fairfax Financial-led consortium – September 23, 2013
Beleaguered BlackBerry’s CEO calls Apple’s iPhone old news – March 18, 2013
Life preservers tossed out with the shape of an Apple logo in the middle.
Chicklet keyboards on the iPhone at long last! Thank God.
This recruiting drive is targeting the 60% that did NOT get the lay-off notice.
Just be careful, you don’t want two many people used to failure working for you.
Very admirable gesture from apple, laying a hand to those who need it. It is not their fault that their CEO was a bozo…
They are talented people, but they have the most untalented boss.
Also, this is a good way to acquire a company with out acquiring the people who bring down that company. Good for you apple and ex BlackBerry people.
Wrong move by Apple. You don’t reward failure and you don’t want the blackberry mentality at Apple.
These are highly talented people, don’t be so bloody ignorant.
By recruiting production staff, Apple are taking those who actually made and designed good products, not those who made the decisions to market products that the market no longer wanted. There’s a difference, if you can see it.
You won’t believe this, but even Microsoft has very talented people, incredible engineers and software designers that I met and work with. Unfortunately, employees don’t always get to pick their bosses, you have to work with what you have. Every time they have a great idea, a stupid boos turn it down because they were more worry about the money or advertising than providing a good experience.
So don’t underestimate RIM’s engineer, they are not to blame for the lousy jobs their CEOs did.
Lets see, southern Ontario, or California coast with assisted immigration (a ticket to the US job market). Decisions, decisions…
I’m pretty sure it was Android that destroyed BlackBerry, not Apple. Those BlackBerrys had mid-tier pricing and they were doing a lot of BOGO. Android easily gobbled up low- and medium-priced market share and BB took that hit. I don’t remember Apple ever having major smartphone market share because Apple just let Android smartphones jump right over them in a matter of months as RIM started to fade.
Besides Android devices there was BlackBerry’s stubborness to change its form factor as the rest of the smartphone industry moved to larger displays and no mechanical keyboards.
Will Apple really decide to scoop up most of the BlackBerry talent? Apple doesn’t really seem that ambitious a company and besides, they probably don’t have enough office space at this point. As far as big cap hardware companies go, Apple really doesn’t have a lot of employees compared to Nokia, Intel, Microsoft, H-P, etc. Apple stays relatively streamlined when it comes to body count.
Why is this considered news? Every company has always recruited talent from wherever it can be found.
The toughest part, actually, would be to convince Canadians to move to California. Not only do the extreme living costs hurt, the hockey is mediocre. The Kings just aren’t what they used to be, even if San Jose or Anaheim have some potential. The Leafs are starting strong with a 3-0 record, so don’t expect Blackberry employees to leave before the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“MacDailyNews Take: Here’s hoping Apple gets many fine employees from this recruitment drive.”
A year or two ago, Texas Instruments laid off almost 200 people from their development center in Israel. Well, Apple now has their own development center in Haifa and has been staffing up. Soon enough, close to 100 of those ex-TI engineers were sporting an Apple badge. And no relocation was required.
RF Engineers are still RF engineers regardless of what company they work for. I wouldn’t get a single software engineer though.