BlackBerry takes out ads to reassure customers and business partners about its viability

Embattled smartphone maker Blackberry has taken out advertisements in 30 newspapers across nine countries, including Canada’s Globe and Mail, in a bid to reassure its customers and business partners following a disastrous quarter.

“You’ve no doubt seen the headlines about BlackBerry. You’re probably wondering what they mean for you as one of the tens of millions of users who count on BlackBerry every single day,” the BlackBerry ad states.

“We have one important message for you: You can continue to count on BlackBerry.”

The ad goes on to list four advantages Blackberry claims for itself as a company, including its business productivity tools, security, enterprise mobility management and mobile social network.

“We have substantial cash on hand and a balance sheet that is debt free. We are restructuring with a goal to cut our expenses by 50% in order to run a very efficient, customer-oriented organisation.

“These are no doubt challenging times for us and we don’t underestimate the situation or ignore the challenges. We are making the difficult changes necessary to strengthen BlackBerry.”

The company reported just $US1.6 billion in revenues for the September quarter, down 45% year-on-year and 49% quarter-on-quarter.

Total losses came in at $US965 million, including a massive $US934 million inventory writedown against unsold stock of the company’s Z10 smartphone.

Late last week, the company began a program that will see it cull 40% of its worldwide workforce, or around 4500 jobs.

The Canadian smartphone maker has also signed a letter of intent for a $US4.7 billion takeover bid by led by investment tycoon Prem Watsa.