BlackBerry, the smartphone maker that is evaluating a sale, will cut 4,500 jobs and record an inventory writedown of as much as $960m (€710m) after a new set of devices failed to catch on with consumers.

BlackBerry Ltd’s announcement that it will consider takeover bids followed almost a year of advisers unsuccessfully canvassing potential buyers in search of a deal, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Canadian smartphone maker, Blackberry Ltd, rose to the highest price in a month after Reuters reported the company is considering going private.

BlackBerry has sold around one million of the new Z10 smartphones it hopes will help restore the firm to the top table in mobile technology.

Apple’s iPhone is outdated, according to the chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion.

BlackBerry has launched two smartphones and software that it hopes will help turn a corner and restore it to the top table in mobile technology.

Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said it will delay the launch of new phones deemed critical to the company’s survival and revealed its business is crumbling faster than thought.

Struggling BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has warned it will have an operating loss in the current March-June quarter and said there will be significant layoffs this year.

Struggling BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it will cede most consumer markets after failing to compete with flashier touch-screen handsets such as Apple’s iPhone and models that run Google’s Android software.

Research In Motion’s new leader said yesterday the Blackberry maker did not need seismic change, a declaration seized on by impatient investors who pledge Thorsten Heins will be an interim chief executive if he does not turn RIM around quickly.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion’s co-chief executives, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, are stepping down, the company said today.