Appen shares have given back most of Thursday's gains after a Canadian tech conglomerate walked away from a $1.2 billion takeover offer after initially expressing tentative interest.
Appen told the ASX on Thursday evening that Telus had given no reason for revoking its interest in the Sydney-based firm, which provides high-quality training data to the artificial intelligence industry.
At 1324 AEDT, Appen shares were down 22.1 per cent to $6.44, after rising 29.2 per cent on Thursday following an announcement Telus was interested.
Appen chairman Richard Freudenstein told investors at the company's annual general meeting on Friday that he understood shareholders were "very unhappy with where the share price is today" - down 85 per cent from its August 2020 peak.
"The board and management acknowledge that some areas of our business have not delivered to their full potential," he said.
"We also acknowledge the concern of some investors about now providing near-term guidance as we are focused on our long-term strategy."
He said Appen was the market leader in its field and had a four-pronged strategy to capture the growth in this fast-moving industry.
