SoundHound AI agreed on Apr 21, 2026 to buy LivePerson for $43 million in equity value

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, from public records. Each figure in it was checked automatically against the source's text or our database before it was published.

SoundHound AI entered into a merger agreement on Apr 21, 2026 to acquire LivePerson, an enterprise conversational AI company, at an equity value of $43 million, the value of the shares alone, before debt. SoundHound said the offer was a premium of about 22% over the average price LivePerson’s stock traded at, weighted by volume, over the thirty days before signing. The S-4 registration statement SoundHound filed on May 27, 2026 put the offer at about $3.33 a share, assuming no adjustment to the consideration pool and about 12.8 million fully diluted LivePerson shares.1^,2^,3^,4^,5^,6

Under the agreement as first signed, a SoundHound subsidiary was to merge into LivePerson, which would survive as an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of SoundHound. LivePerson stockholders were to receive SoundHound Class A shares. The number of shares was set by dividing a pool of about $42.8 million, before adjustments, by SoundHound’s volume-weighted average share price over the ten trading days ending three trading days before closing, with that price held between $7 and $12. The pool was cut by any shortfall in LivePerson’s cash against a minimum that started at $74 million, or $71 million for a closing in July.7^,8^,9^,10^,11^,12

Also on Apr 21, 2026, SoundHound signed a Notes Restructuring Agreement with LivePerson and the holders of its secured notes due 2029. First-lien holders were to receive SoundHound shares equal to $178 million divided by the same closing share price, plus cash paid by LivePerson; second-lien holders, shares equal to $83 million divided by it, plus a cash amount.13^,14^,15

SoundHound said the deal implied a total enterprise value of $250 million, a measure that adds debt to the value of the shares and subtracts cash, after significant discounts on LivePerson’s remaining debt. It said it expected to receive $74 million of LivePerson’s cash at closing, before repayment of the 2026 convertible notes, and would retire the discounted debt with a mix of cash and equity, at its discretion. It expected the combined company to have no debt.16^,17^,18

SoundHound said the combination would unify its voice and agentic AI platform with LivePerson’s digital engagement capabilities, which it said powered one billion customer messages per month. It called LivePerson its fifth strategic acquisition and said the combined company expected a $500 million revenue opportunity.19^,20^,21

Closing needed the approval of LivePerson stockholders and approvals under foreign direct investment laws, among other conditions. Either side could end the agreement if the merger was not completed by Oct 21, 2026, a date extendable to Dec 5, 2026 for regulatory approvals.22^,23

The merger agreement was amended and restated on Jul 2, 2026, and SoundHound announced the completion of the acquisition on Sep 4, 2026. In the filing that reported the completion, each LivePerson share, apart from certain excluded shares, converted into the right to receive 0.4673 SoundHound shares.24^,25^,26^,27

Our records hold the text of this 8-K, the current report in which SoundHound disclosed the deal, and the joint press release; we do not hold the merger agreement or the Notes Restructuring Agreement filed as exhibits.28