SoundHound to acquire LivePerson for $43M to expand AI platform

SoundHound AI said it will acquire LivePerson for an equity value of $43M, combining its voice and agentic AI platform with LivePerson’s digital messaging capabilities to build an end-to-end conversational AI system.

The deal implies a total enterprise value of about $250M after accounting for debt adjustments, with SoundHound expected to receive $74M in cash at closing. The combined company is expected to operate with no debt.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and shareholder consent.

The acquisition combines SoundHound’s voice AI with LivePerson’s Conversational Cloud, which processes about one billion customer messages per month, creating a unified system across voice, chat, and digital channels.

“This transformational combination brings together two complementary conversational AI pioneers,” Keyvan Mohajer, CEO and Co-Founder of SoundHound AI, said.

Platform integration across voice and messaging

The combined platform is designed to give enterprises a single system to manage customer interactions across channels, including phone, text, web, and mobile messaging. The approach addresses a longstanding gap where companies rely on multiple vendors to handle different parts of customer communication.

This aligns with broader shifts in enterprise AI, where voice systems are evolving into context-aware interfaces capable of maintaining multi-turn conversations and handling complex workflows across industries.

Advances in conversational systems are enabling AI to preserve context, respond dynamically, and integrate into enterprise workflows, supporting more continuous interaction across channels

The companies said the combined system will use data from billions of voice interactions and digital messages to improve automation, orchestration, and response accuracy across enterprise workflows.

John Sabino, CEO of LivePerson, said customers expect to move between voice and messaging without losing context, requiring unified systems rather than separate tools.

Customer scale and revenue expansion

The combined company will serve enterprise customers across more than 30 countries, including major banks, airlines, and automakers.

The deal creates one of the largest enterprise customer footprints in conversational AI, with coverage that includes 25 of the Fortune 100.

SoundHound expects the combined business to generate between $350M and $400M in revenue by 2027, with at least $100M coming from LivePerson’s customer base.

The company said cross-selling opportunities across both customer bases could expand the revenue opportunity to about $500M.

This expansion depends on deploying voice AI into LivePerson’s digital customer base and offering a unified omnichannel platform to SoundHound’s existing customers. The approach reflects how enterprises are deploying conversational AI systems to manage customer interactions across multiple channels while maintaining continuity and context across each step of the interaction.

The acquisition is SoundHound’s fifth strategic deal, following earlier integrations including Amelia and Interactions, as the company builds a full-stack enterprise AI platform through acquisitions.