SoundHound Beats Analyst Expectations But Lays Off 10% of Workforce
- SoundHound reported an earnings loss of $0.15, slightly beating the $0.17 loss analysts predicted.
- SoundHound’s $11.2 million in revenue was above the $8.2 million expected.
- Fourth-quarter revenue projections are $8.74 million with an earnings loss of $0.17
- SoundHound announced a 10% workforce reduction and some pay cuts the same day as the earnings
SoundHound Cuts
SoundHound (SOUN) announced it would reduce its workforce by 10% even as it beat analyst expectations in the stock market. The voice AI mainstay shared losses of $.015, but that was still two cents better than analyst predictions. The company’s $11.2 million in revenue was notably above the $8.2 million anticipated before the quarterly report.
“We are confident in our ability to both create and leverage a huge global addressable market. Our ability to simultaneously focus and be agile has always been one of our strengths and has enabled us to strategically innovate and bring the right technology to the market at the right time,” SoundHound CEO Keyvan Mohajer said in the call following the quarterly earnings report. “As we look forward, we will remain agile and focused. For that reason, yesterday, we announced to our SoundHounders that we are taking actions to streamline our company, including an approximate 10% reduction in workforce. We never take these actions lightly, but we know that success comes from leaning into challenges and the ability to navigate and appropriately respond to the environment around us.”
Despite the need to trim the workforce and the earnings loss, Mohajer pointed to continual growth in revenue and new products as indicators of the company’s upward trajectory. In the last quarter, SoundHound has deployed new features for on-device and cloud voice AI, and introduced a real-time transcription and annotation service. The company has also begun integrating its voice AI into the Harman Ignite Store for cars, deployed its first Mandarin language outlet as a feature for Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobiles (DPCA) vehicles in China, contracted with Stellantis in Europe.
“Adoption of our voice AI is accelerating fast, as evidenced by our record quarterly revenue. In addition to strong growth in royalty revenues across automotive and IoT customers, increasing numbers of businesses are now looking to use our AI to automate their customer service – particularly for restaurant phone and drive-thru ordering, Mohajer said. “Across industries voice AI is proving to be the next big interface and, as the only independent platform, SoundHound is well-positioned to establish itself as a leader in this market. On November 17, we will also unveil a new breakthrough technology that we believe will redefine conversational AI and mark a new chapter in human-computer interaction.”
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