LivePerson

How it happened

LivePerson pioneered web chat and later positioned itself as an enterprise conversational-AI company. Its stock soared in the pandemic chat boom to roughly $4.5B in early 2021, then growth reversed — revenue fell at double-digit rates, its AI looked undifferentiated against generative-AI rivals, and a heavy debt load loomed. Employee reviews track the descent from inside: a pandemic hiring frenzy flipped into near-constant layoffs — some insiders counted six rounds in three years — amid heavy executive churn and side ventures, from banking to healthcare, that staff felt diluted focus on an aging platform, with surviving roles shifted to lower-cost regions. The stock fell more than 99%, and in 2026 LivePerson agreed to be acquired by SoundHound AI for about $45M.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.