BlackBerry's job cuts will cost firm $400m

Canadian smartphone maker pays price of axing 40 per cent of its global workforce

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry will incur costs of about $400m (£247m), partly as a result of its decision to axe 40 per cent of its global workforce.

The firm is also attempting to shift manufacturing equipment and real estate.

BlackBerry announced last week that it accepted a $4.7bn takeover bid from a consortium led by its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial.

Before it seals the deal, it is attempting to streamline its business and cut costs.

Nearly two weeks ago, the company announced that it would cut 4,500 staff. It has since said in a financial filing: "The company expects to incur $400m in pre-tax charges related to the CORE programme throughout fiscal 2014 and the first quarter of fiscal 2015."

This was up four-fold from BlackBerry's previous expectation that it would only incur $100m of charges throughout fiscal 2014.

The firm is also writing down unsold phone inventory by nearly $1bn - reports claim that the channel is awash with unsold BlackBerry 10 series devices.

BlackBerry, previously named Research in Motion, was valued at about $80bn as recently as June 2008, but it has struggled to keep up with Apple's iPhones and other handset makers using Google's Android operating system.