SoundHound AI, a conversational AI technology firm, has agreed to acquire enterprise messaging platform LivePerson in a deal designed to create an end-to-end omnichannel conversational AI platform for global enterprises.
The transaction will combine SoundHound’s voice and agentic AI capabilities with LivePerson’s digital engagement platform, which currently supports around one billion customer messages per month across enterprise applications.
The combined business will serve enterprise clients across more than 30 countries, including 12 of the world’s top 15 global banks, four of the five largest airlines, four of the five leading automakers and more than 10 major telecommunications providers.
LivePerson brings hundreds of long-standing enterprise relationships, many spanning more than a decade, while SoundHound’s customer base includes restaurants, automakers and enterprise clients across sectors including financial services, healthcare, insurance, energy and retail.
Keyvan Mohajer, CEO and co-founder of SoundHound AI, said: “This transformational combination brings together two complementary conversational AI pioneers. SoundHound and LivePerson will define the future of agentic customer service, helping businesses replace fragmented legacy technologies with best-in-class multimodal experiences for the AI-driven era ahead of us. Our combined customers will realise immediate value through expanded capabilities and enhanced scale. And by leveraging our unified conversational datasets, we are accelerating the evolution of our already powerful agentic AI platform to ensure impressive precision and market-leading performance.”
The acquisition will also expand SoundHound’s capabilities in AI-powered digital customer service, allowing the company to offer integrated conversational experiences across both voice and digital channels including web, mobile and social messaging platforms.
LivePerson’s Conversational Cloud platform is already integrated with enterprise systems and digital communication channels, enabling large organisations to manage messaging, chat and automated digital interactions at scale.
John Sabino, CEO of LivePerson, said: “The artificial boundaries between ‘talking’ and ‘typing’ are disappearing. Consumers expect to start a complex request over the phone and finish it seamlessly via text or web messaging, without ever repeating themselves or losing context. Historically, orchestrating a strategy across both voice and digital channels meant juggling multiple specialized vendors. This acquisition changes that dynamic. By bringing SoundHound’s cutting-edge, proprietary voice AI and LivePerson’s premier digital messaging together under one roof, we will offer the industry’s most complete portfolio of customer engagement solutions.”
From a financial perspective, SoundHound will acquire LivePerson for an equity value of approximately $43m, representing a 22% premium over the company’s 30-day volume-weighted average share price.
At closing, SoundHound expects to receive $74m of LivePerson’s cash balance before repayment of the company’s 2026 convertible senior notes. After accounting for discounted debt, the transaction implies a total enterprise value of around $250m.
The combined company is expected to operate with no debt and could generate between $350m and $400m in revenue by 2027, with at least $100m expected from LivePerson’s existing enterprise customers.
By cross-selling SoundHound’s voice AI capabilities to LivePerson’s digital customers and offering unified omnichannel solutions across both customer bases, the combined platform could represent a $500m revenue opportunity based on existing relationships alone.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
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