Teads (TEAD) 2026年第三季度业绩电话会：营收下滑之际CTV实现增长

核心要点

• 2026年第三季度营收同比下降26%至约2.35亿美元，ex-TAC毛利润同比下降28%至9350万美元。
• 调整后EBITDA为负800万美元。在支付了3100万美元的半年期利息后，自由现金流为负3300万美元；利息前自由现金流为负140万美元。
• 企业级业务ex-TAC毛利润下降14%至7500万美元，反映出EMEA地区8月份的疲软以及开放互联网面临的持续压力。北美地区下降15%，而亚太地区增长5%。
• 联网电视（CTV）营收增长37%，约占企业级业务的20%，截至第三季度年初至今累计接近1亿美元。
• 直接反应广告及中小企业业务ex-TAC毛利润骤降50%至2000万美元，主要由于AI生成的搜索摘要及算法调整导致发布商引流流量和页面浏览量下滑。
• Teads计提了2.72亿美元的非现金商誉减值。管理层正在评估进一步削减成本的举措，并寻求构建更稳健的长期资本结构。

核心财务数据

业务与运营表现

联网电视（CTV）仍是Teads的主要增长引擎。第三季度该项业务营收增长37%，尽管管理层表示增速较此前几个季度有所放缓，但随后在10月份再次提速。公司通过与Whale TV和Telly等建立合作关系，将其主屏幕覆盖范围扩大到全球超过5亿台设备。

Teads正利用CTV广告库存来支持更广泛的全渠道打包方案，将主屏幕展示位、流媒体插播（in-stream）CTV及网页广告相结合。公司还推出了最新版本的Teads Ad Manager，通过智能体工作流整合跨渠道规划与采购。

企业级业务表现环比走弱。管理层将这一表现下滑主要归因于EMEA地区8月份出人意料的疲软、宏观经济因素以及整个开放互联网面临的结构性压力。Teads在该季度与宝马、联想、壳牌和起亚签署了新的联合业务合作协议。

直接反应广告及中小企业业务面临更大压力。管理层表示，由于AI生成的搜索摘要及算法调整，在某些情况下发布商页面浏览量下降了20%至60%。流量的减少降低了可用的广告展示次数及效果广告变现机会。

Teads正在推广EngageOS，以帮助发布商提升收益率和用户参与度。公司表示，部分发布商合作伙伴在这些指标上实现了两位数增长。提及的客户及合作伙伴包括《赫芬顿邮报》（Huffington Post）、《世界报》（Le Monde）、Prisma、阿克塞尔·施普林格（Axel Springer）和Politico，同时ABC新闻（ABC News）和Fandom作为新的优质发布商加入。

管理层展望

管理层表示，受运营改善和季节性因素提振，第四季度初期的表现较第三季度有所复苏，但类似的生态系统压力依然存在。10月份CTV业务增速也重新加快，并较8月份欧洲部分地区的疲软态势有所改善。

公司认为发布商页面浏览量的下滑可能已经趋于平稳，同时内部算法的改进正在推动剩余流量实现更好的变现。在第三季度扣除商誉减值后的各项开支同比下降约10%之后，管理层还预计将推进进一步的成本削减。

Teads在评估其资本结构的同时，继续与债权人保持沟通。即将上任的首席财务官Michael Coyle表示，他的工作重点包括运营转型、财务纪律以及构建更具韧性的资本结构。

风险与重点关注领域

• AI生成的搜索摘要及搜索算法调整正在减少整个开放互联网中的引流流量、发布商页面浏览量和广告库存。
• 管理层指出，公司面临持续的营收端波动、预算转化率走弱以及更加艰难的变现环境。
• 直接反应广告及中小企业业务面临的风险尤为突出，因为其信息流产品需要填补所有可用库存。
• EMEA地区的疲软（尤其是8月份）加剧了企业级业务的放缓，而北美地区则同比下降15%。
• 利息支出仍然是一项重大的现金流负担，其中8月份支付的利息总计3100万美元。
• 在营收下滑且调整后EBITDA录得亏损的背景下，公司正在同时评估其成本基础与资本结构。

分析师问答亮点

当被问及流量下滑时，首席执行官David Kostman表示，部分发布商的页面浏览量降幅在20%至60%之间。他表示，下滑态势似乎正在企稳（尽管管理层对该评估持谨慎态度），并指出通过Teads算法实现的流量变现正在改善。

在成本方面，即将离任的首席财务官Jason Kiviat表示，扣除减值后，运营成本同比下降约10%，但管理层认为仍有进一步调整成本结构的空间。

关于CTV业务，管理层将第三季度的放缓定性为部分受季节性因素影响，并表示10月份增速再次加快。Teads计划利用其覆盖超过5亿台设备的主屏幕优势，通过大型代理商销售整合CTV与网页广告的联合推广方案。

财报电话会议完整实录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

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.

分析师问答

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.