LivePerson vs Perplexity

8-K Financial Filing Analysis for LivePerson (2026-09-04)

On September 4, 2026, LivePerson, Inc. completed its acquisition by SoundHound AI, Inc., becoming an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of SoundHound. Under the terms of the merger, each share of LivePerson common stock was converted into the right to receive 0.4673 shares of SoundHound Class A common stock, while shares held via the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange Clearing House were converted into $3.31 in cash per share. Concurrently, LivePerson satisfied its First and Second Lien Secured Notes due 2029 through an aggregate distribution of 36,894,839 SoundHound shares and $5,848,000 in cash. Following the closing, LivePerson delisted its common stock from Nasdaq, suspended its SEC reporting obligations, and its entire board of directors resigned.

• SoundHound completed the acquisition of LivePerson on September 4, 2026, converting each LivePerson share into 0.4673 shares of SoundHound Class A common stock (or $3.31 in cash for TASE shares).
• LivePerson's 2029 First and Second Lien Secured Notes were fully resolved via an aggregate issuance of 36,894,839 SoundHound Class A shares plus $5,848,000 in cash.
• LivePerson filed for Nasdaq delisting (Form 25) and deregistration under the Exchange Act (Form 15), accompanied by the resignation of its entire board of directors.

LivePerson has been acquired by SoundHound AI, creating a world-leading Omnichannel Conversational AI powerhouse.

A banner on the LivePerson blog announces that LivePerson has been acquired by SoundHound AI, creating a world-leading Omnichannel Conversational AI powerhouse, with a link to the SoundHound newsroom announcement.

SoundHound AI Completes LivePerson Acquisition

SoundHound AI has finalized its acquisition of LivePerson, a deal first announced in April 2026 with an implied enterprise value of $250 million, and completed on September 4, 2026. The merger combines SoundHound's voice agentic AI with LivePerson's digital messaging infrastructure to create a unified omnichannel conversational AI platform, integrated into SoundHound's OASYS system. The combined entity now serves 25 of the Fortune 100 and holds over 750 patents. John Collins has been appointed CFO. LivePerson's debt was retired at closing, leaving a debt-free balance sheet. SoundHound projects over $500 million in future revenue from existing customers, citing Gartner's forecast of $985 billion in enterprise agentic AI software spending by 2030.

• SoundHound AI completed its acquisition of LivePerson on September 4, 2026.
• The deal was announced in April 2026 with an implied enterprise value of $250 million.
• John Collins was appointed as the new CFO of the combined company.

Vespa.ai Achieves AWS AI Competency

Vespa.ai announced it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI Competency in the AI Software category. This designation recognizes Vespa as an AWS Partner that helps customers build, deploy, and operate large-scale AI applications on AWS. The Vespa AI Search Platform combines hybrid retrieval, advanced ranking, machine learning inference, and real-time serving in a single platform, reducing infrastructure complexity while providing low latency and scalability for production AI. Vespa is trusted by organizations including Perplexity, Spotify, and Yahoo, powering billions of queries and recommendations across industries such as information platforms, digital commerce, media and advertising, and life sciences. The recognition validates Vespa's expertise in building production AI search applications on AWS.

• Vespa.ai achieved the AWS AI Competency in the AI Software category.
• The designation recognizes Vespa as an AWS Partner for building and operating large-scale AI applications on AWS.
• Vespa AI Search Platform combines hybrid retrieval, advanced ranking, ML inference, and real-time serving.

EU Classifies ChatGPT as Very Large Online Search Engine

The EU Commission has classified ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act, prompting Swiss media association VSM to call for copyright reform. VSM argues that AI chatbots increasingly provide generated answers instead of links to journalistic sources, with over 99% of users not clicking through to sources, thereby depriving publishers of traffic and ad revenue. VSM demands a technology-neutral copyright law that obliges AI providers to compensate journalistic work. The German media authority ZAK has also ruled that media law applies to AI search services, with decisions against Google and Perplexity. The Swiss parliament has referred a related proposal back to the Federal Council to examine AI's impact on search engines and platforms.

• The EU Commission classified ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the Digital Services Act in late August.
• The Swiss media association VSM sees this as confirmation that the line between search engines and AI services is disappearing.
• VSM claims that over 99% of users do not click through to sources when using AI chatbots, compared to over 60% for traditional search engines.

Xbox Patent Hints at In-Game Ads; Perplexity Courting Creators

AdExchanger's Thursday roundup focuses on two key stories: AI companies like Perplexity, OpenAI, and Anthropic are increasingly investing in influencer marketing to humanize their products, mirroring a cycle where advertisers become competitors. Separately, Microsoft's Xbox has filed a patent describing in-game ad insertion at natural gameplay breaks and rewarded ad viewing for ad-free play, indicating its ongoing push into gaming advertising. Other briefs include a rebrand of SSP 33Across as WealthStage, OpenAI in talks for a $1.2 trillion valuation funding round, a child's inadvertent $118k YouTube ad spend, DoorDash investing $425M in Wonder, and a warning about malware on shady casino sites.

• Microsoft's Xbox filed a patent for in-game ads at natural breaks and rewarded viewing.
• Perplexity is hiring an exec to run its creator program.
• OpenAI is in early talks for a funding round valued at $1.2 trillion.