SYDNEY — Appen said that Alphabet’s Google will terminate its inbound services contract, ending a deal that contributed about 30% of the Australian data-annotation provider’s 2023 revenue.
Appen on Monday said that Google had made the decision as part of a strategic review. Appen will cease all work on all projects covered by the contract by March 19.
Appen said it had no prior knowledge of the decision, which it called unexpected and disappointing. Appen derived $82.8 million of its $273.0 million annual revenue from Google.
“Appen will immediately adjust its strategic priorities following the notification of the Google contract termination,” it said in a market filing.
The ASX-listed company’s unaudited 2023 annual revenue was down about 30% on 2022. Appen, which will release its audited annual results in February, also said it generated an unaudited underlying Ebitda–earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization–loss of $20.4 million for 2023.