The Trade Desk is cutting about 15% of its global workforce, roughly 575 of the 3,843 employees it reported at the end of 2025, with departures effective September 4. Chief executive Jeff Green delivered the news in an internal email published the same day on The Current, the media property owned and operated by The Trade Desk itself, rather than through a standalone press release. “Tomorrow, The Trade Desk will be smaller by about 15% of employee count globally,” Green wrote, calling it a decision the company had “not taken lightly.”
The cuts land just after a second quarter that grew revenue only 3% and third-quarter guidance implying a 12% year-over-year decline, the company’s first projected revenue drop since going public. Green framed the move as reallocation rather than distress, pointing to roughly $1.5 billion in cash and no debt on the balance sheet, and tied the restructuring to speed rather than survival: the goal, he wrote, is a team that can “move with greater agility, focus, ownership, and speed.” No functional or regional breakdown of the cuts, and no restructuring-charge estimate, was disclosed alongside the email.
The timing matters more than the headcount number. The largest independent demand-side platform is trimming staff in the same stretch where regulators have put ad auction transparency under a federal microscope and owned and retail media supply has been pulling budget away from the open programmatic exchanges that built The Trade Desk’s business. A company built entirely on independent, open-internet buying is now cutting cost structure at the exact moment the case for buying independently gets harder to make to a CFO watching owned-channel ROAS. Green’s own framing, that the company has “captured ~1% of the TAM” and has “so much more to do,” reads as much like reassurance to Wall Street as it does a statement to staff.
Source: The Current
