AD TECH · ANALYSIS
The Trade Desk cuts 15% of staff, about 575 roles; Q2 revenue grew 3% and Q3 guidance points to the first decline since its IPO
The Trade Desk has cut 15% of its workforce. Chief executive Jeff Green told staff in an email late on September 3, and the reduction took effect on September 4. The company reported 3,843 full-time employees as of December 31, 2025, in a February filing, putting the cut at roughly 575 roles. By region, 63% of the reductions fall in North America, 20% in EMEA and 17% in Asia-Pacific.
The decision followed the previous quarter's results. Revenue reported on August 6 was $715 million for the second quarter, up 3% year on year and $37.6 million below consensus. Third-quarter guidance is at least $650 million. Against $739 million in the third quarter of 2025, that implies a 12% decline; quarterly revenue has not fallen year on year since the 2016 listing. Adjusted EBITDA guidance is about $160 million.
Since the IPO the company has sold one premise: a neutral buying counter that owns no media of its own. That premise carried a premium while advertisers spread budgets across the open internet. Spending is now concentrating with platforms that hold first-party data and inventory together. Amazon's second-quarter ad revenue rose 26% to $19.8 billion, its fastest rate in six reported quarters, and Alphabet's ad revenue grew 14%. The Trade Desk grew 3% in the same quarter.
In the staff email Green said the company would reorganize into “smaller pods and smaller scrums, but with greater focus.” He cited about $1.5 billion in cash and no debt on the balance sheet, and said affected employees would receive transition packages. The stock closed at $14.43 on September 4, about 90% below its late-2024 peak and roughly 70% below its level a year ago. Market capitalization stands at $6.78 billion, down from about $69 billion in late 2024.
575 roles cut, 63% of them in North America; 17% in Asia-Pacific
The company did not disclose which teams or functions were affected, gave no restructuring charge, and set no target headcount. Green wrote that layoffs had “not been a common practice” at the company and that he did not expect them to become one.
The reorganization extends a December 2024 change that created about 100 scrum teams; the new structure breaks those units down further. With 17% of the cuts in Asia-Pacific, regional account coverage that serves Korean buyers is inside the affected scope.
A day before the announcement, Evercore ISI analysts published a note recapping the company's investor bus tour. It reported that investor relations head Chris Roth said the company had “never significantly pared back its cost structure” and that there were likely “significant opportunities to address.”
Richard Kramer, analyst at Arete Research, told Business Insider: “In the context of being one of the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 for two years running, losing its entire C-level management team, and with expectations of 15% sales declines in 2H26, the head count cuts are no surprise.”
Q2 revenue $715 million on 3% growth; Q3 guidance set at $650 million
Second-quarter GAAP net income was $64 million, down from $90 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $241 million at a 34% margin, five points below the 39% margin of a year ago. First-half revenue was $1.404 billion, up 7%. The company repurchased $78 million of Class A stock during the quarter, with $269 million remaining under its authorization as of June 30.
The stock fell more than 24% in after-hours trading following the release. On August 7 Raymond James cut the shares to Underperform, Truist moved to Hold and Susquehanna to Neutral, citing execution problems, macroeconomic pressure, pricing and competition.
Green said on the results call that the company “did not meet the standard we set for ourselves,” and pointed to steps to strengthen execution, upgrade the platform and sharpen focus.
The Trade Desk, second quarter 2026
Source: The Trade Desk results, August 6, 2026. Q3 2025 revenue derived from full-year and half-year totals.
Revenue in the table rose 3% while adjusted EBITDA fell from $271 million to $241 million. The five-point margin drop came from costs growing faster than revenue rather than from revenue falling. That margin line is what the job cuts target. Third-quarter guidance of $650 million is $89 million below the same quarter last year, and the $160 million adjusted EBITDA guidance is 66% of the second-quarter figure, putting the revenue decline and the cost reduction in the same quarter.
Amazon ad revenue $19.8bn, up 26%; one auto brand shifted $80mn
Amazon's advertising revenue rose from $15.7 billion a year earlier to $19.8 billion, taking trailing twelve-month advertising revenue to $76.1 billion. Chief executive Andy Jassy said on the results call that “inventory on Thursday Night Football, NBA, WNBA, and NASCAR all sold out.” More than 30 new advertisers came to the NBA in its first year on Prime Video.
Q2 2026 advertising revenue growth, year on year. Source: company results
The shift also shows at the account level. Adweek reported that a global automotive brand moved roughly $80 million in annual spend from The Trade Desk to Amazon's ad platform by the end of the first quarter. Lower fees, a better interface, measurement visibility, exclusive live sports and Prime Video's expanding reach were cited; the brand's ability to sell cars on Amazon also factored into the decision.
In connected TV the gap widened over several quarters. AdExchanger reported that Amazon grew faster than the CTV ad market while deepening partnerships with Roku and Disney, as The Trade Desk's quarterly growth stepped down from 22% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Fees stacked in layers: the Publicis audit and the OpenPath exits
The fee structure has been a stated reason for defections. According to AdExchanger, The Trade Desk charges a buy-side platform fee in the mid-teens as a percentage of CPM, plus a 4.5% publisher fee on OpenPath introduced in late 2024. Its Predictive Clearing bid-shading fee is embedded in the CPM and typically does not appear on the contract or the invoice. Data, identity and measurement add-ons sit on top; the effective take rate has been estimated at around 21%. WPP and Dentsu exited OpenPath over the economics and the opacity.
Friction with large buyers followed the same line. Publicis Groupe told clients in March, after an independent audit of fees, that it would no longer recommend The Trade Desk; the two companies issued a joint statement in June saying they had settled their differences.
In August the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company's former senior director of financial planning and analysis with insider trading, and federal prosecutors separately charged him with securities fraud, alleging more than $338,000 in profits from trading on material nonpublic information learned at the company.
No structural breakup for Google's ad tech; behavioral remedies only
Two days before the layoffs, on September 2, Judge Leonie Brinkema issued remedies in the Justice Department's ad tech case against Google. Google will not have to divest Google Ad Manager, which bundles the DFP ad server with the AdX exchange. It must open AdX real-time bid data to rival ad servers, deprecate Unified Pricing Rules and let publishers set different price floors per bidder. First look and last look privileges are barred for open-web display.
PubMatic said the adoption of behavioral remedies “should establish a level playing field for all market participants.” Jay Friedman, chief executive of CartographAI, asked AdExchanger: “What is a web publisher to do if it wants to use a different ad server but still get Google's buy-side demand?” With divestiture off the table, the distribution path on the open web stays as it was before the ruling.
Kokai Zuma adds agentic AI; company claims 32% better CPA
A week before the layoffs, on August 27, the company released Kokai Zuma. The periodic-table interface that drew buyer complaints was replaced with a conventional dashboard as the default view. Koa agents handle campaign setup, audience building, frequency optimization and performance measurement, and conversion lift studies and report building were simplified. The company said CPA performance improved 32% on average. Green said AI “helps our clients move faster and makes measurement more intuitive and actionable.”
Executive changes clustered in the same period. Over the past three months Kristi Argyilan, formerly of Target Roundel, joined as chief commercial officer, Nate Olmstead of Penguin Solutions as chief financial officer and Sarah Gavin, previously of Zendesk, as chief marketing officer. Penry Price, formerly of Google and LinkedIn, joined the board. Aravind Chandrasekharan, senior vice president of engineering, left after more than 12 years. Over the past year the company lost its CFO, chief revenue officer, chief strategy officer, chief marketing officer and four board members.
In Korea, Netflix inventory is bought through The Trade Desk; broadcast ad spend fell 13%
For Korean advertisers and agencies the platform is already a route to specific inventory. Since July 2025 The Trade Desk has supported programmatic buying of Netflix (넷플릭스) ad inventory in Korea, through private marketplace and programmatic guaranteed deals, with targeting on Netflix's first-party audience data, exclusive placements against top-10 titles and first-in-break positions. In the second-quarter results Netflix joined the company's premium inventory marketplace.
Samsung Electronics (삼성전자) sits on the same route. Samsung Ads (삼성 애즈) opened smart TV home screen inventory to programmatic buyers on June 10, and The Trade Desk was among the first platforms with access. The first screen of a Korean-made television is sold through an overseas demand-side platform. With 17% of the cuts in Asia-Pacific, Korean accounts have reason to confirm their support contacts and coverage.
The direction of the Korean market matches the U.S. one. The 2025 Broadcasting and Telecommunications Advertising Expenditure Survey (2025 방송통신광고비 조사보고서), published by the Ministry of Science and ICT (과학기술정보통신부) and KOBACO (한국방송광고진흥공사) on February 5, 2026, put total Korean ad spending at about 17.2 trillion won ($12.79bn). Broadcast advertising fell about 13%, while online advertising accounted for roughly 60% of the total. The report expects online, digital and retail media to keep growing this year while broadcast and print keep adjusting.
Korean ad tech results show the same split. Incross (인크로스) reported second-quarter billings of 146.08 billion won ($108.6mn), up 32.7%, while revenue rose 13.6% to 9.90 billion won ($7.4mn) and operating profit rose 26.1% to 2.83 billion won ($2.1mn). The distance between volume growth and revenue growth tracks a split in which the party holding the media and the data takes more of the value.
In Korea the position Amazon occupies is divided between commerce platforms and portals. The growth gap between companies that sell advertising against their own purchase and search data and companies that sell only the buying technology showed up first in U.S. numbers. When Korean broadcasters and streaming services open inventory programmatically, the terms of that opening and the extent to which they hand over their own viewing data will set how the fees are divided.
Overseas platforms and the Korean market
Source: company results; Ministry of Science and ICT and KOBACO, 2025 Broadcasting and Telecommunications Advertising Expenditure Survey (February 5, 2026); Incross
The first three rows measure the gap between companies that hold advertising inventory and user data together and companies that sell only the buying technology; Amazon and The Trade Desk are 23 points apart. The last three rows show the same structure in Korea. Total ad spending edged up while broadcast advertising fell 13%, and Incross's 32.7% billings growth against 13.6% revenue growth leaves a 19-point gap. Volume through the pipe grew faster than the margin left at the agency step. Closing that gap in Korea means moving toward owning media data or inventory directly.
Next check point is the third quarter; the cost of the cuts was not disclosed
Guidance stands at revenue of at least $650 million and adjusted EBITDA of about $160 million for the third quarter. The company did not disclose one-time charges from the reduction or the annual payroll saving. What the third-quarter report will settle is whether guidance holds, how far the adjusted EBITDA margin recovers after the cuts, and when the loss of large advertisers shows up in revenue.
Green closed the staff email by saying the company's “best days are ahead.” The Trade Desk declined further comment on the layoffs and did not specify which teams were most affected.
Sources
· Lara O'Reilly, “Adtech company The Trade Desk lays off 15% of staff as it restructures into 'smaller pods',” Business Insider, September 4, 2026. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-trade-desk-lays-off-15-of-staff-2026-9
· Kendra Barnett, “The Trade Desk Sheds 15% of Staff on Heels of Lackluster Q2 Showing,” Adweek, September 4, 2026. https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/the-trade-desk-sheds-15-of-staff-on-heels-of-lackluster-q2-showing/
· “Trade Desk cuts 15% of its global workforce effective today,” PPC Land, September 4, 2026 (575 roles; 63/20/17 regional split). https://ppc.land/trade-desk-cuts-15-of-its-global-workforce-effective-today/
· The Trade Desk, “The Trade Desk Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results,” August 6, 2026 (revenue, EBITDA, guidance, buybacks, Netflix and Samsung inventory). https://www.stocktitan.net/news/TTD/the-trade-desk-reports-second-quarter-2026-financial-t7pyktbz8ldq.html
· “The Trade Desk crash exposed a much bigger problem,” TheStreet, August 2026 (Raymond James, Truist, Susquehanna actions on August 7). https://www.thestreet.com/investing/the-trade-desk-gowth-slowdown-advertiser-competition
· “Is The Trade Desk's Turnaround Push Officially Underway?,” Adweek, August 2026 (Kokai Zuma, executive changes, $69bn market cap in late 2024). https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/is-the-trade-desks-turnaround-push-officially-underway/
· The Trade Desk, “The Trade Desk Introduces Kokai Zuma, the Latest Release of Kokai,” August 27, 2026 (32% CPA improvement; Green quote). https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/the-trade-desk-introduces-kokai-zuma-the-latest-release-of-kokai
· “Amazon advertising gains 26% to $19.8 billion as sports inventory sells out,” PPC Land, August 2026 (Amazon Q2 ad revenue; Jassy quote; Alphabet 14%). https://ppc.land/amazon-advertising-gains-26-to-19-8-billion-as-sports-inventory-sells-out/
· “EXCLUSIVE: Marketers Move Millions in Ad Spend from The Trade Desk to Amazon's Ad Platform,” Adweek, 2026 ($80mn auto brand shift). https://www.adweek.com/media/marketers-move-millions-ad-spend-the-trade-desk-to-amazons-ad-platform/
· “Why Amazon Is Gaining Ground In CTV And The Trade Desk Is Losing Its Lead,” AdExchanger (fee structure, effective take rate, WPP and Dentsu OpenPath exits). https://www.adexchanger.com/on-tv-and-video/why-amazon-is-gaining-ground-in-ctv-and-the-trade-desk-is-losing-its-lead/
· “Google Won't Have To Break Up Its Ad Tech Business, Judge Brinkema Rules,” AdExchanger, September 2, 2026. https://www.adexchanger.com/antitrust/google-wont-have-to-break-up-its-ad-tech-business-judge-brinkema-rules/
· “Google spared from ad-business breakup, but judge orders changes to how it operates,” TechCrunch, September 2, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/02/google-spared-from-ad-business-breakup-but-judge-orders-changes-to-how-it-operates/
· “더 트레이드 데스크, 한국에서 넷플릭스 프로그래매틱 광고 캠페인 지원” (The Trade Desk supports Netflix programmatic campaigns in Korea), MADTimes (매드타임스), July 14, 2025. https://www.madtimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=24562
· The Trade Desk, “The Trade Desk Among First to Access Samsung's Premium Home Screen Inventory Programmatically,” June 10, 2026. https://www.thetradedesk.com/press-room/the-trade-desk-among-first-to-access-samsungs-premium-home-screen-inventory-programmatically
· Brand Brief (브랜드브리프), 2026, citing the Ministry of Science and ICT and KOBACO 2025 Broadcasting and Telecommunications Advertising Expenditure Survey released February 5, 2026 (secondary citation). https://www.brandbrief.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=9545
· “인크로스, 2분기 영업익 26% 성장…광고 사업 선전” (Incross Q2 operating profit up 26%), Bloter (블로터), August 7, 2026. https://www.bloter.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=670328
· The Trade Desk (TTD) share price and market capitalization, StockAnalysis, as of the September 4, 2026 close. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/ttd/
Won figures are converted at 1,345.10 won to the dollar, the standard rate for September 8, 2026.
Quotation marks indicate remarks as reported by the outlet named; unquoted passages summarize reported content. Material confirmed through another outlet is marked as a secondary citation.
Quarterly revenue and growth rates for 2025 are derived from reported full-year revenue of $2.896 billion for 2025 and $2.445 billion for 2024, the 2026 first-half total and trailing twelve-month revenue of $2.99 billion.