US advertising technology giant The Trade Desk (TTD) has laid off 15 per cent of its global workforce, during a difficult year marked by slowing growth, senior executive departures and a sharp fall in its share price.
Founder and chief executive Jeff Green informed employees about the decision in an email on September 3. The email was also published on The Current, a news site owned by TTD. Affected employees left the company the following day (September 4).
“This was a difficult decision that we have not taken lightly,” Green said in the email. He said retrenchment was “a common practice in big tech,” but added that it had not been common at TTD. “We don’t expect it to become one,” he said. The company has offices worldwide, including in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, Shenzhen and Taipei.
More than 500 jobs could be affected worldwide
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, TTD said the layoffs were part of an organisational realignment aimed at focusing resources on its biggest growth priorities and creating a leaner structure.The company had 3,843 full-time employees as of Dec 31, 2025, according to a February filing. A 15 per cent reduction would affect more than 500 employees worldwide.
The company expects most of the restructuring work to be completed during the third quarter of 2026.TTD estimates cash restructuring costs of between US$39 million and US$51 million, mainly related to severance and employee benefits. These costs will be partly offset by a reversal of between US$4 million and US$5 million in stock-based compensation. Green said the company wants teams to be “organised into smaller pods and smaller scrums, but with greater focus.”
He also stressed that TTD remains financially healthy, with around US$1.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and no debt on its balance sheet.
Shares have suffered a steep decline
The layoffs follow a disappointing earnings report last month, when TTD reported revenue growth of just 3 per cent year-on-year and missed Wall Street expectations. “Our revenue growth is below our expectations and below the standard we hold ourselves to,” Green said during the company’s earnings call.
TTD shares have fallen about 70 per cent over the past year and nearly 90 per cent from their late-2024 peak. The stock dropped roughly 4 per cent on Friday when the restructuring plan was outlined.
New Street Research described the company’s August revenue numbers as “shocking” and cut its price target to US$10 from US$17.The research firm also commented on TTD’s shift toward what it calls “decisioned buying.”
“We view this as another way of saying TTD has no plans to launch a low-cost option with limited decisioning right now,” the firm said.
Richard Kramer, an analyst at Arete Research, said the job cuts were not unexpected.
“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,” he told Business Insider.
Analysts at Evercore ISI also pointed to potential cost-cutting opportunities at the company. They said TTD’s head of investor relations, Chris Roth, had told investors during a company tour that the firm had “never significantly pared back its cost structure” and that there were likely “significant opportunities to address.”
Senior executives and board members have left
The layoffs come after a major period of leadership turnover at the company. TTD has lost its chief financial officer, chief revenue officer, chief strategy officer and chief marketing officer this year. Four board members have also left.
The company has since appointed replacements for its CFO and CMO positions. It has also hired a new chief commercial officer and added two new board members.
The company faced another setback in late August when the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged former senior director of financial planning Jesse Mitchell with insider trading.
Federal prosecutors separately charged Mitchell with securities fraud.
Prosecutors allege that he made more than US$338,000 in profits by trading TTD shares using material, non-public information obtained through his job.
Disputes with major advertising groups added pressure
TTD also spent much of the year dealing with a public dispute with advertising holding company Publicis Groupe.
In March, an independent audit commissioned by Publicis found that TTD had improperly applied demand-side platform fees and opted clients into certain features without their consent.
Publicis said it would stop recommending TTD to clients. Omnicom later launched a similar audit of its own agreement with the company.
Jeff Green, founder & CEO at The Trade Desk rejected the allegations publicly and said TTD had never failed an audit. He also defended the company’s practice of working with agencies rather than bypassing them.
Green said TTD would not hand over private billing data for all its clients to a single partner.
The two companies issued a joint statement in June saying they had resolved their differences. Publicis later resumed recommending TTD to clients, according to Ad Age.
Dentsu and WPP also exited TTD’s “OpenPath” supply chain initiative this year over concerns about fee visibility, adding to pressure on the company’s relationships with some of the advertising industry’s largest agency networks.
Green is betting on AI for a turnaround
Despite the company’s struggles, Green has continued to bet heavily on artificial intelligence.
In a March blog post, he said he had bought around US$150 million worth of TTD shares, describing it as “the biggest purchase of my life.”
Green said his confidence was based partly on the company’s investments in AI.
“TTD has been building AI and machine learning tools for more than a decade — long before the recent AI hype phase,” Green wrote.
“AI is across our platform — supercharging our bidder, our valuation engine, our SPO efforts, our predictive clearing product, our new Deal Desk.”
The company has highlighted Kokai, its AI-powered platform for planning, buying and measuring advertising. TTD says the platform can analyse 20 million advertising opportunities every second.
Green has also argued that the company still has significant room for growth. “We’re positioning ourselves for growth,” he wrote. “We’ve captured ~1% of the TAM. We have so much more to do.” Among those affected by the latest restructuring was Ian Ivins, who worked on TTD’s connected television strategy and partnerships team for two-and-a-half years.
Posting on LinkedIn while flying home from London, Ivins said it was his “last day at The Trade Desk, following a restructuring” and that he was “in shock.” He also shared a message for other employees affected by the layoffs. “For everyone else affected today, this isn’t about your talent, your value, or your output. It hurts right now, but there are better things ahead.”