BlackBerry shares fell 6.2 percent in New York trading after Home Depot Inc. said it will stop issuing the Canadian company’s phones to its corporate employees and managers.
The home-improvement chain will swap out 10,000 BlackBerry models with Apple Inc.’s iPhones, said Stephen Holmes, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot. The change won’t affect the 60,000 mobile devices used by store employees, he said.
The move deals a setback to BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., which unveiled a new lineup last month in a comeback attempt. After years of losing ground to the iPhone and Android devices, the BlackBerry’s market share has slipped into the single digits.
Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company fell to $15.47 at 9:58 a.m. in New York trading. The stock had climbed 39 percent this year before Monday, fueled by optimism that the new BlackBerry 10 operating system will be a hit.
Home Depot’s switch to the iPhone was previously reported by the AppleInsider site.
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