New Appen boss targets growth despite pulling earnings outlook

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Appen revenue fell 13.1 per cent to $US388.5 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation collapsed to $US11 million in the year to December 31.

The new chief executive of Appen has admitted the artificial intelligence company has delivered disappointing results, but says his priority is to implement “operational rigour” and return the business to growth.

Appen chief executive Armughan Ahmad, who took over in January, said he was experienced at turning around businesses and his top priority was to implement changes to return Appen to profitable growth. The company swung to a net loss of $US239.1 million – inclusive of a $204.3 million impairment related to good will and intangibles – from a $28.5 million profit a year earlier.The company has already identified $10 million in annual cost savings, and that benefit is expected to be realised in the second half of the financial year. It has also flagged a more extensive strategic review, the results of which will be announced in May.

The first is designed to tackle the risks of bias and “hallucinations” in large learning models; its second is a document intelligence product that lets clients extract insights from unstructured documents such as contracts, letters or receipts; and third, it has launched an automated labelling tool for natural language processing.

Mr Ahmad said the company was being undervalued by investors compared to competitors such as China’s SpeechOcean, which he noted had less revenue but a higher valuation.

 

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Don’t think that once couple billion market value company, who lost 90% of its value will see those glorious days again!

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