Teads (TEAD) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: CTV-Wachstum bei Umsatzrückgang

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Der Umsatz im dritten Quartal 2026 ging im Jahresvergleich um 26 % auf rund 235 Millionen US-Dollar zurück, während der Bruttogewinn ex-TAC um 28 % auf 93,5 Millionen US-Dollar sank.
• Das bereinigte EBITDA lag bei minus 8 Millionen US-Dollar. Der freie Cashflow belief sich nach einer halbjährlichen Zinszahlung in Höhe von 31 Millionen US-Dollar auf minus 33 Millionen US-Dollar, während der freie Cashflow vor Zinsen bei minus 1,4 Millionen US-Dollar lag.
• Der Bruttogewinn ex-TAC im Enterprise-Segment ging um 14 % auf 75 Millionen US-Dollar zurück, was einen schwachen August in der EMEA-Region und anhaltenden Druck im offenen Internet widerspiegelt. Nordamerika verzeichnete ein Minus von 15 %, während die Region APAC um 5 % zulegte.
• Die Erlöse im Bereich Connected TV stiegen um 37 %, machten rund 20 % des Enterprise-Geschäfts aus und erreichten seit Jahresbeginn bis zum Ende des dritten Quartals fast 100 Millionen US-Dollar.
• Der Bruttogewinn ex-TAC in den Bereichen Direct Response und KMU brach um 50 % auf 20 Millionen US-Dollar ein, da KI-generierte Suchzusammenfassungen und Algorithmenänderungen den Referral-Traffic sowie die Seitenaufrufe der Publisher reduzierten.
• Teads verbuchte eine nicht zahlungswirksame Firmenwertabschreibung in Höhe von 272 Millionen US-Dollar. Das Management prüft weitere Kostensenkungen und strebt eine robustere langfristige Kapitalstruktur an.

Zentrale Finanzdaten

Geschäftliche und operative Entwicklung

Connected TV blieb der wichtigste Wachstumstreiber von Teads. Die Erlöse stiegen im dritten Quartal um 37 %, wenngleich sich das Wachstum nach Angaben des Managements im Vergleich zu den Vorquartalen verlangsamt hatte, bevor es im Oktober wieder anzog. Durch Partnerschaften unter anderem mit Whale TV und Telly baute das Unternehmen seine Startbildschirm-Präsenz weltweit auf mehr als 500 Millionen Geräte aus.

Teads nutzt CTV-Inventar zur Unterstützung breiter angelegter Omnichannel-Pakete, die Startbildschirm-Platzierungen, In-Stream-CTV und Web-Werbung kombinieren. Zudem brachte das Unternehmen die neueste Version des Teads Ad Manager auf den Markt, die eine kanalübergreifende Planung und den Einkauf über agentenbasierte Workflows integriert.

Die Geschäftsentwicklung im Enterprise-Segment schwächte sich im Vorquartalsvergleich ab. Das Management führte die Verschlechterung vor allem auf einen unerwartet schwachen August in der EMEA-Region, makroökonomische Faktoren und den anhaltenden strukturellen Druck im offenen Internet zurück. Im Laufe des Quartals schloss Teads neue gemeinsame Geschäftspartnerschaften mit BMW, Lenovo, Shell und Kia ab.

Das Geschäft mit Direct Response und KMU stand unter stärkerem Druck. Nach Angaben des Managements sanken die Seitenaufrufe der Publisher infolge KI-generierter Suchzusammenfassungen und Algorithmenänderungen teilweise um 20 % bis 60 %. Das geringere Traffic-Aufkommen verringerte die verfügbaren Impressions und die Chancen für Performance-Werbung.

Teads forciert EngageOS, um Publishern bei der Steigerung von Ertrag und Nutzerinteraktion zu helfen. Wie das Unternehmen mitteilte, erzielten einige Publisher-Partner bei diesen Kennzahlen zweistellige Zuwächse. Als Kunden und Partner wurden unter anderem die Huffington Post, Le Monde, Prisma, Axel Springer und Politico genannt; zudem kamen ABC News und Fandom als neue Premium-Publisher hinzu.

Ausblick des Managements

Das Management erklärte, dass die Entwicklung zu Beginn des vierten Quartals aufgrund operativer Verbesserungen und saisonaler Einflüsse eine gewisse Erholung gegenüber dem dritten Quartal gezeigt habe, wenngleich ein ähnlicher Druck im Ökosystem angehalten habe. Im Oktober zeigte sich zudem eine erneute Beschleunigung bei CTV und eine Verbesserung gegenüber der im August in Teilen Europas verzeichneten Schwäche.

Das Unternehmen geht davon aus, dass sich die Rückgänge bei den Seitenaufrufen der Publisher stabilisiert haben könnten, während interne Algorithmenverbesserungen eine bessere Monetarisierung des verbleibenden Datenverkehrs unterstützen. Zudem rechnet das Management mit weiteren Kostensenkungen, nachdem die Ausgaben ohne die Firmenwertabschreibung im dritten Quartal im Jahresvergleich bereits um rund 10 % gesunken waren.

Teads steht weiterhin im Austausch mit seinen Fremdkapitalgebern, um die eigene Kapitalstruktur zu überprüfen. Der designierte CFO Michael Coyle erklärte, zu seinen Prioritäten zählten die operative Transformation, finanzielle Disziplin und der Aufbau einer widerstandsfähigeren Kapitalstruktur.

Risiken und Beobachtungsschwerpunkte

• KI-generierte Suchzusammenfassungen und Änderungen an Suchalgorithmen verringern den Referral-Traffic, die Seitenaufrufe von Publishern und das Werbeinventar im gesamten offenen Internet.
• Das Management verwies auf eine anhaltende Umsatzvolatilität, eine schwächere Budgetumwandlung und ein schwierigeres Monetarisierungsumfeld.
• Das Geschäft mit Direct Response und KMU ist besonders exponiert, da sein Feed-Produkt eine vollständige Auslastung des gesamten verfügbaren Inventars erfordert.
• Die Schwäche in der EMEA-Region, insbesondere im August, trug zur Verlangsamung im Enterprise-Segment bei, während Nordamerika im Jahresvergleich um 15 % nachgab.
• Zinszahlungen bleiben eine erhebliche Cashflow-Belastung; die Zahlung im August belief sich auf insgesamt 31 Millionen US-Dollar.
• Vor dem Hintergrund sinkender Umsätze und eines bereinigten EBITDA-Verlusts überprüft das Unternehmen sowohl seine Kostenbasis als auch seine Kapitalstruktur.

Höhepunkte der Analysten-Fragerunde

Auf die Frage nach den Traffic-Rückgängen erklärte CEO David Kostman, dass einige Publisher Einbußen bei den Seitenaufrufen zwischen 20 % und 60 % verzeichnet hätten. Er merkte an, dass sich die Rückgänge offenbar stabilisierten – wenngleich das Management diese Einschätzung vorsichtig formulierte –, und verwies auf eine verbesserte Monetarisierung durch die Algorithmen von Teads.

Zu den Kosten äußerte der scheidende CFO Jason Kiviat, dass die Betriebskosten ohne die Wertminderung im Jahresvergleich um rund 10 % gesunken seien, das Management jedoch weiterhin Spielraum sehe, die Kostenstruktur weiter anzupassen.

Bezüglich CTV beschrieb das Management die Abschwächung im dritten Quartal als teils saisonbedingt und gab an, dass das Wachstum im Oktober wieder angezogen habe. Teads plant, seine Startbildschirm-Präsenz auf mehr als 500 Millionen Geräten zu nutzen, um über große Agenturen integrierte Kampagnen für CTV und das Web zu vertreiben.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Unknown Executive

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Teads' third quarter results. Joining me on the call today, we have David Kostman, CEO; Jason Kiviat, current CFO; and Michael Coyle, incoming CFO of Teads. During this conference call, management will make forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, including statements regarding our business outlook and prospects. Statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These risk factors are discussed in detail in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as updated in our subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the call's original date, and we do not undertake any duty to update any such statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. You should refer to the information contained in the company's third quarter results announcement for definitional information and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. Our earnings release can be found on our IR website, investors.teads.com, under News and Events. With that, let me turn the call over to David.

David Kostman

Thank you, Maria, and good morning, everyone. For the third quarter, ex-TAC gross profit reached approximately $94 million, adjusted EBITDA was a negative $8 million, and our free cash flow before interest payments was a negative $1.4 million. Let me break down the dynamics within our 2 core businesses, starting with Enterprise. Ex-TAC gross profit for the Enterprise business was $75 million, a decline of 14% year-over-year compared to a decline of just 6% in Q2 year-over-year. This sequential deceleration was primarily driven by an unexpectedly weak August in our EMEA region, influenced by macroeconomic factors and the structural headwinds in the open Internet. APAC experienced a 5% year-over-year increase in Q3, and North America a decline of 15%. However, as we move through the close of the quarter and into October, we began seeing tangible revenue improvements.

Our core growth engine, Connected TV, continues to perform well. CTV revenue grew 37% in Q3, continuing to outperform market growth rates, accounting for approximately 20% of our Enterprise business and reaching year-to-date revenues of nearly $100 million through Q3. Our focus on the home screen, or the front door to the living room, is paying off. What we see is that premium streaming video budgets are expanding, and we are seeking to capture that expansion by securing home screen inventory, in many instances, on an exclusive basis. We grew our leading global footprint of home screen placements of more than 500 million devices worldwide through expanded partnerships, including with Whale TV and Telly. Importantly, the CTV momentum is the hook that we expect to drive our broader omnichannel sales.

Third-party research data supports that combining CTV and web campaigns through Teads delivered a 25% increase in total campaign impact and a 10% lift -- and a 10-point lift in ad recall. We also recently launched the next evolution of our buying platform, Teads Ad Manager, which provides the opportunity to strengthen our partnership with major agencies who are actively consolidating their buying with partners that offer exclusive inventory, integrated data, and agentic planning. Teads Ad Manager leverages agentic workflows through MCP protocols and solves cross-channel fragmentation by bridging upper-funnel CTV branding with lower-funnel conversions in one agentic platform.

In the quarter, we also signed new joint business partnerships with global brands, including BMW, Lenovo, Shell, and Kia.

Turning now to our direct response and small-medium enterprise business. Ex-TAC gross profit was $20 million, a 50% decline year-over-year. Here, we are experiencing major headwinds due to the rapid adoption of AI-generated search summaries and algorithm updates that are significantly reducing traditional referral traffic across the open Internet. This is heavily impacting publisher page views and impressions and performance advertising across our entire ecosystem. The adoption of EngageOS, our new differentiated AI-powered platform, helps our publisher partners maximize yield and user engagement and potentially mitigate the impact of these search declines. Some of them already experienced double-digit growth in yields and user engagement. EngageOS also continues to support Teads' differentiation by securing access to direct, premium, authenticated supply. We are seeing continued traction of our solution with premium publishers, including Huffington Post, Le Monde and Prisma in France, Axel Springer in Germany, and Politico in the U.S. We're also continuing to bring on new premium publishers, including ABC News and Fandom in the U.S.

While Q3 was a challenging quarter, I want to frame our results around 3 key realities. One, CTV is our structural tailwind. Premium video budgets are expanding, and we are well positioned to capture them through our home screen global leadership and omnichannel offerings. Second, agencies are consolidating and prioritizing partners that can deliver scaled, integrated media paired with proprietary data assets, which is precisely where we hold a strong competitive edge. And third, the open Internet is facing unprecedented pressures due to traffic declines. While navigating this industry-wide traffic compression is difficult, we are providing tools publishers and advertisers can use to adapt and grow. For example, on the Enterprise side of the business, we're experimenting in emerging channels and formats to deliver on our clients' KPIs, such as in-app advertising using our native feed for more premium brand experiences, new social formats that complement walled garden environments, and LLM testing as part of the OpenAI ChatGPT pilot program.

Finally, despite the Q3 EBITDA loss, our free cash flow before interest was close to breakeven. We are driving operational efficiencies to improve our cash flow. We're also focused on optimizing our capital structure and expect to continue to engage in constructive discussions with our debtholders as we seek a long-term, stronger balance sheet.

Before we dive into the financials, I want to take a moment to address the leadership update we announced this morning. After 13 incredible years with Teads, Jason Kiviat will be transitioning from his role as Chief Financial Officer and support us throughout the transition period. On a very personal note, Jason has been an extraordinary partner, a trusted friend, and a key pillar of our company's success from our earliest days. We are deeply grateful for his dedication and wish him the absolute best in his next chapter.

I'm thrilled to welcome Michael Coyle as our new CFO. Michael brings a track record of driving operational excellence and financial discipline at major international organizations, and we believe he is the right leader to help us execute on our strategic priorities moving forward. Michael, welcome to the team.

I'll hand it to Jason for a few words.

Jason Kiviat

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. It has been a privilege to help build Teads over the last 13 years. I want to thank David, the executive team, the Board and especially my incredible finance team. Their hard work and resilience have been the backbone of our success. While it's never easy to step away, I'm confident in the foundation we've built. I look forward to working closely with Michael over the coming months to ensure a seamless handover, and I'm excited to watch Teads continue to evolve and succeed under his leadership.

Michael Coyle

Thank you, Jason and David, and I'll keep my remarks brief. I decided to join Teads because I have conviction in the future of the company. We are navigating a pivotal transformation, and I believe we have the underlying platform and strategic vision required to build a strong future. I'm excited to partner with David and the leadership team to drive this operational transformation forward, to build a resilient capital structure, and unlock the long-term value I see in the business. I look forward to connecting with many of you on the line in the weeks ahead.

Now, Jason, I'll turn it back to you.

Jason Kiviat

Thanks, Michael. As David noted, it was a challenging quarter where we saw a decline in our top-line revenues drive our adjusted EBITDA to be in a loss position. Revenue in Q3 was approximately $235 million, reflecting a 26% decline year-over-year, and ex-TAC gross profit in the quarter was $93.5 million, a decrease of 28% year-over-year. As the quarter played out, we saw a lower level of budget conversion than we expected at the onset of the quarter, ultimately resulting in a deterioration across both Enterprise and direct response and SME customers, despite the former showing momentum as we entered the quarter. In the early part of Q4, while we continue to see similar ecosystem trends, we have seen some recovery as compared with Q3 due both to operational improvements and seasonality.

Moving to expenses in Q3. As a result of recent declines in our share price and overall market capitalization, we were required under accounting standards to perform an impairment assessment and ultimately recorded a full impairment to goodwill of $272 million. This accounting adjustment is entirely noncash and does not impact our liquidity, operating cash flows, or debt covenants. Excluding the impact of this onetime noncash impairment charge, other cost of sales and operating expenses decreased around 10% year-over-year, even despite ongoing FX headwinds. While the cost reductions we've made have been helpful, given the headwinds on our top line and volatility of the environment, we're further scrutinizing our cost structure.

Based on the lower top-line performance and seasonality of the quarter, adjusted EBITDA for Q3 was a loss of $8 million, and free cash flow in the quarter was a use of cash of $33 million due to the semiannual interest payment made in August of $31 million. Free cash flow before interest payments was close to breakeven at negative $1.4 million.

Despite the use of cash, in part due to seasonality and timing of interest payments, we are comfortable with our liquidity position.

During the quarter, we closed on a new $125 million AR borrowing facility, leveraging a portion of our accounts receivable balances, providing a cost-efficient source of capital. The amount available under this facility will fluctuate based on borrowing base and various factors that influence it. At closing, the available borrowing base was approximately $60 million, with $55 million of cash drawn. As of September 30, we had total liquidity of approximately $140 million, inclusive of $90 million cash on hand and amounts under the AR facility and our existing revolving credit facility. Also, and as David said, we are focused on evaluation of our cost and opportunities to improve our capital structure.

Now, I'll turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Laura Martin with Needham.

Fragen und Antworten

Laura Martin

The first one, could you give us more granularity on what your traffic -- what you're seeing in terms of traffic declines, specifically that's driving the downdraft in revenue?

And then second, Jason or Mike, how much further can you go on cost-cutting? Because I know that's been a focus since you guys closed Teads. So how much further do you -- how many more costs do you think you can cut out of the enterprise at this point?

David Kostman

Laura, it's David. So we see anywhere from -- in page view declines, anywhere from 20% to, some of them, even 60% page view declines that are coming primarily from AI summaries and algorithmic changes. On top of that, there's also a more challenging environment to monetize. I mean, in the past, we used to offset a lot of it by better RPMs. We also see some increased challenges in better monetization. But what we've seen is a stabilization of that. So the page view declines, we think they've reached -- we hope they reached the bottom, and we're also seeing better monetization of existing pages through better algorithmic improvements on our end. So we think it's at the bottom, but these are the numbers that we see.

Jason Kiviat

Laura, it's Jason. In terms of your second question, yes, we have been -- we're down on cost maybe 10% year-over-year in Q3. But we do think there's more to go. I mean given obviously the context of the changes in the industry and the headwinds, it's something that we began looking at and we definitely think there's room to adjust our cost structure for this, as well as our balance sheet, as we said.

Operator

The next question comes from Ed Alter with Jefferies.

Edward Alter

I wanted to ask 2, if I can. One, just a little more on the overall macro. What would it take on the open Internet side for things to get better? Or how do you see them -- if you don't think they're going to get better, how are they going to get worse?

And then on CTV, it looks like that slowed a little bit from the past couple quarters. Just want to talk about the trends there and kind of how that's trending into the back half of the year.

David Kostman

It's David. So generally CTV has been a little bit of a slower quarter versus the previous one. But for example, October, we saw, again, acceleration. So we think it's pretty seasonal, and I think it impacted -- when you look at our overall results, we saw some weakness in Europe, particularly in August in a couple of countries. And as we said, I think we already see October sort of reversing that trajectory. Across the open Internet, we believe that -- I mean the 2 segments of the business are impacted very differently. The direct response and SME is impacted in a more severe way because we, on the feed product, have 100% that we need to fill. On the in-read and other placements, I think it's less of an impact because we still have opportunity to fill more than what we're filling today. And particularly on the Enterprise side, I think what we're seeing -- where we're seeing success is selling omnichannel. So leveraging the growth in CTV that we see to sell better packages that combine CTV home screen, where we have a real strong leadership position. We broadened that in Q3, as we updated. We have more than 500 million devices. We believe we're the only company that allows the big agencies to place campaigns across multiple OEMs on the home screen. And we, I think, are doing a much better job executing and packaging solutions which will combine that home screen with in-stream CTV and web.

Operator

There are no more questions at this time. I would like to transfer the call over to David Kostman for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

David Kostman

Thank you for joining us. We look forward to updating you in the future, hopefully, with a better quarter than this one. Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.