Production of BlackBerry smartphone devices has been cut in half after the company's CEO, Thorsten Heins, effectively put the company up for sale.
Heins, who under his contract of employment stands to earn more than $50m if the company is sold, announced that the company was "exploring strategic alternatives" on 12 August - just 10 days ago.
Further reading BlackBerry mulls patent sale as Windows knocks it into fourth place BlackBerry 'exploring strategic alternatives' – including break-up, sale or privatisation BlackBerry loses more key staff BlackBerry Z10 prices slashed in the US
While those strategic alternatives could include a plan to take the company private, the announcement was widely interpreted that the company was effectively giving up, and putting itself up for sale.
But the uncertainty wrought by that announcement has already had an impact.
According to Peter Misek, an analyst at investment bank Jefferies & Co in New York, monthly phone production has recently been cut from two million units in July to just one million in August - with a further cut of 10 per cent more recently.
Misek was citing supplier sources, although he still rates the company a "buy" on the basis of its overall asset value.
"Leveraged buyout and acquisition headlines will cause enterprises to delay purchases until they have greater clarity on BlackBerry's future as a company," wrote Misek in a research note this week.
The new claims follow disappointing sales of the company's Z10 and Q10 smartphones, which were pitched at the high end against the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. Prices have since fallen, but it failed to gain launch momentum as a result of the high price.
According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long, BlackBerry should have a market value of as much as $5.5bn.
His valuation is based on the value of its patents ($1bn), cash in hand ($2.6bn), its enterprise network ($1.2bn) and its software ($1.5bn). The cost of shutting down the handset business, though, has been estimated at $800m. Some analysts believe that its patents could fetch as much as $1.5bn.
Furthermore, many organisations still rely on BlackBerry's older devices for secure messaging on the move for staff.
The BlackBerry 10 operating system is based on QNX, which is widely used as an embedded operating system in the vehicle industry.
