BlackBerry is reported to have significantly reduced its sales staff yesterday as the company’s largest shareholder approached several investment funds about a deal to make the company private.

A source told Canadian publication Cantech Letter that the company laid off more than half of its salesforce, with staff on the consumer side “gone” and the enterprise side having been “gutted”.

Job cuts have been taking place for several weeks, according to the source, starting at the company’s headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, but spreading to UK staff soon.

A BlackBerry spokesman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that a “small number of employees” were made redundant. In March, BlackBerry said it had more than 12,000 employees.

The job cuts follow a run of weak sales and diminishing market share, which the launch of the first BlackBerry 10 devices earlier this year have failed to reverse.

The handset maker’s struggles prompted the formation of a special board committee in August to review strategic alternatives for the company. Options under consideration are “possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions”.

Reuters reports that Fairfax Financial Holdings, which has a 10 per cent stake in BlackBerry, has approached several investors about selling the company. Fairfax chairman and chief executive Prem Watsa has departed the BlackBerry board in order to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

A source told Reuters that there has also been an informal approach about a possible deal from another investor, while the Fairfax talks are at a preliminary stage.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that BlackBerry is looking to complete any sales of assets by November. It is by no means definite that parts of the business will be sold by November, or at all, but the BlackBerry board is understood to want to move quickly.

Sources said that financial organisations such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bain Capital are likely to consider bids.

The company has been reported to be considering a spin-off of its BlackBerry Messenger business as a separate subsidiary, while Bert Nordberg, a BlackBerry director and former CEO of Sony Ericsson, last week told the Wall Street Journal that the company could continue as a niche maker of smartphones while other parts of the company are sold off.