Blackberry Ltd has warned it expects to report a huge quarterly operating loss this week and that it will cut more than a third of its global workforce, rekindling fears of the company’s demise and sending its shares into a tailspin.

It is weighing its options in the face of lacklustre sales of its new smartphones

The company, which has struggled to claw back market share from the likes of Apple Inc’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s Galaxy phones, said it expects to report a net operating loss of between $950 million and $995 million (€636m-€702m) in the quarter ended August 31, due to writedowns and other factors.

The results will put more pressure on Blackberry to find a buyer for either some parts of the company, or for all of it. It said last month it is weighing its options, including an outright sale, in the face of persistently lacklustre sales of its new smartphones, which run on the Blackberry 10 operating system.

“The company has sailed off a cliff,” said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis.

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