Remark Holdings (MARK) is what one would call a contested company. It has long supporters with strong conviction, but there has also been some kind of a short drive, and the present short count is almost 16% of the nearly 25M float. That short count is far from the highest we've seen, a company like Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) still has 78% of the float shorted (at least according to the latest figures) but it seems to have done major damage already. Who to believe, the conviction longs or the shorts who put out a troubling report. Questions like these are very difficult to solve, especially if you're not a forensic accountant. Since we're no forensic accountants ourselves, we'll try to gather some stylized facts and see what these add up to, and whether there is some chance for the longs to recoup some of their losses. This company was one of two highest conviction longs for SA contributor Yale Bock, who is the President of Y H & C Investments (see here).

What started of as a small Chinese big data startup, soon grew into a full data-intelligence service company listed among the top 10 in China. Data intelligence features Alibaba and other market leaders are offering, are often to expensive and complex for small to medium size businesses. This is exactly what KanKan, a US NASDAQ – listed Remark Holdings ("MARK") – subsidiary, sees as their opportunity. Their offerings are especially targeted towards SMEs, making their AI technology easy to use and very customisable.

I had the pleasure of meeting Shing Tao, the CEO of Remark Holdings (NASDAQ:MARK), on Monday night. He had just flown into San Francisco from Beijing and I was meant to be his first meeting before dinner and some shut eye; he had a big Tuesday in front of him with Roth Capital (whose analyst loves MARK, although they haven't been their bankers) taking him on a Non-Deal Roadshow and introducing him to several institutional investors. Remark has been very hot lately, jumping almost 200% in value since the company reported Q3 earnings in mid-November. The move came on the back of 2018 revenue guidance for their Artificial Intelligence operating subsidiary, KanKan. They guided to $30M in KanKan AI revenues for next year, which would be a 500% increase over 2017.

Welcome to the Remark Holdings First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Becky Herrick of LHA. Thank you all for joining us today for the Remark Holdings first quarter 2017 financial results conference call. On the call today are Chairman and CEO, Shing Tao; and CFO, Doug Osrow. After the prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions. A webcast replay of today's call will be available at www.remarkholdings.com. Some of the statements made today may be forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements reflect Remark Holdings current views and Remark Holdings expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date hereof. This disclaimer is only a summary of Remark Holdings' statutory forward-looking statements disclaimer which is included in its filings with the SEC.