Who's losing all their staff? BlackBerry's CEO is...

A trio of top BlackBerry executives are leaving the company following CEO Thorsten Heins' admission that employee cuts were inevitable.

The embattled smartphone manufacturer, seemingly forever fending off negative press, has already announced restructuring plans across the company, with job losses expected in middle management sales and support divisions.

According to Canadian news outlet CBC, the three senior members leaving the firm are Doug Kozak, VP corporate information technology operations, Carmine Arabia, senior VP global manufacturing and supply chain and Graeme Whittington, VP service operations.

The website reports that company spokeswoman Rebecca Freiburger released an email statement saying:

"We are in the second phase of our transformation plan where we will be assessing our organization — from top to bottom — to ensure we have the right people in the right roles with the right skill sets to drive new opportunities in mobile computing."

The news follows plans by the company to lay off 250 workers from its new-product testing facility last month, along with a huge 5,000 jobs also set to go.

Whether or not the trio have left on their own accord or been sacked remains to be seen however, with Arabia's LinkedIn page claiming he's taken the position of VP of operations at Amazon, suggesting he may have jumped ship rather than have been pushed.

In wake of growing investor concerns, BlackBerry is considering a licensing deal, or even an outright sale of the business, announced last month at the company's annual shareholder meeting.

Speaking at event, CEO Thorsten Heins remained upbeat, claiming:

This is a long-term transition for the company, but I can assure you that we’re pushing very hard,” he said.

“BlackBerry will pursue every opportunity to create value for shareholders.”

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