According to reports floating around, BlackBerry is looking to close their software design operations in Sweden. Started by its acquisition of The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) in 2010, the team grew. Now, according to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, BlackBerry will be letting go just over 150 employees: 93 in Malmö and 60 in Gothenburg.

BlackBerry bought TAT for SEK800,000 back in 2010 to work mainly on the UI for the PlayBook tablet, and to lend design expertise for the then upcoming BlackBerry 10 UI. However, by 2013, most of the TAT team had left to form their own company TOPP which clients now includes rival Samsung.

According to BlackBerry:

At this time, we are considering the closure of our offices in Sweden. Since this may impact approximately 100 employees, we are now initiating consultations with the employees’ trade unions