Teads (TEAD) 2026年第3季電話財報會議：營收下滑之際CTV成長

重點摘要

• 2026 年第三季營收年減 26% 至約 2.35 億美元，不計流量獲取成本 (ex-TAC) 之毛利則下滑 28% 至 9,350 萬美元。
• 調整後 EBITDA 為負 800 萬美元。在支付 3,100 萬美元的半年度利息後，自由現金流為負 3,300 萬美元；支付利息前的自由現金流則為負 140 萬美元。
• 企業業務不計流量獲取成本之毛利年減 14% 至 7,500 萬美元，反映歐非中東 (EMEA) 地區 8 月表現疲弱，以及開放網路持續面臨的壓力。北美地區下滑 15%，亞太 (APAC) 地區則成長 5%。
• 聯網電視 (CTV) 營收成長 37%，約佔企業業務的 20%，截至第三季年初至今已接近 1 億美元。
• 由於 AI 生成的搜尋摘要與演算法變更導致發行商轉介流量和頁面瀏覽量減少，直接回應與中小企業 (SME) 不計流量獲取成本之毛利重挫 50% 至 2,000 萬美元。
• Teads 認列了 2.72 億美元的非現金商譽減損。管理層正在研議進一步削減成本，並尋求建立更穩健的長期資本結構。

核心財務數據

業務與營運表現

聯網電視 (CTV) 仍是 Teads 的主要成長引擎。第三季營收成長 37%，儘管管理層表示該季增速低於前幾季，但 10 月已再度加速。該公司透過與 Whale TV 及 Telly 等夥伴合作，將其主畫面覆蓋版圖擴展至全球超過 5 億台裝置。

Teads 正利用 CTV 廣告版位支援更廣泛的全通路套裝方案，結合主畫面版位、插播型 (in-stream) CTV 與網路廣告。該公司亦推出最新版本的 Teads Ad Manager，透過代理型工作流程 (agentic workflows) 整合跨通路規劃與採購。

企業業務表現較上季轉弱。管理層將該惡化主要歸因於歐非中東 (EMEA) 地區 8 月表現意外疲軟、總體經濟因素，以及開放網路面臨的結構性壓力。Teads 在該季與 BMW、聯想、殼牌 (Shell) 及起亞 (Kia) 簽署了新的聯合商業夥伴關係。

直接回應與中小企業業務面臨更大壓力。管理層表示，由於 AI 生成的搜尋摘要與演算法變更，發行商的頁面瀏覽量在某些情況下減少了 20% 至 60%。流量下滑導致可用曝光次數與成效型廣告機會減少。

Teads 正推廣 EngageOS，協助發行商提升獲利收益與使用者參與度。該公司表示，部分發行商夥伴在這些指標上實現了兩位數的成長。提及的客戶與夥伴包括《哈芬登郵報》(Huffington Post)、《世界報》(Le Monde)、Prisma、Axel Springer 與 Politico，並新增 ABC News 及 Fandom 為頂級發行商。

管理層展望

管理層表示，受惠於營運改善與季節性因素，第四季初期表現較第三季有所回升，儘管類似的生態系壓力依然存在。10 月份亦展現出 CTV 成長再度加速，且較 8 月歐洲部分地區出現的疲軟態勢有所改善。

該公司認為發行商頁面瀏覽量的下滑可能已經趨於穩定，而內部演算法的改進正有助於更妥善地將剩餘流量變現。在第三季不計商譽減損的費用年減約 10% 後，管理層亦預期將進一步推動成本削減。

Teads 在評估其資本結構的同時，持續與債權人保持溝通。即將上任的財務長 Michael Coyle 表示，他的首要任務包括營運轉型、財務紀律，以及打造更具韌性的資本結構。

風險與關注焦點

• AI 生成的搜尋摘要與搜尋演算法變更，正導致整個開放網路的轉介流量、發行商頁面瀏覽量與廣告庫存減少。
• 管理層指出營收持續波動、預算轉換轉弱，以及變現環境日益艱困。
• 直接回應與中小企業業務面臨的風險尤高，因為其動態消息產品需要填補所有可用庫存。
• 歐非中東 (EMEA) 地區的疲弱（尤其是 8 月）導致企業業務成長放緩，而北美地區則年減 15%。
• 利息支出仍是重大的現金流負擔，其中 8 月的支付金額總計達 3,100 萬美元。
• 在營收下滑且調整後 EBITDA 出現虧損的情況下，該公司正在評估其成本基礎與資本結構。

分析師問答焦點

被問及流量下滑問題時，執行長 David Kostman 表示，部分發行商的頁面瀏覽量降幅介於 20% 至 60% 之間。他表示此下滑趨勢似乎已趨於穩定，儘管管理層對此評估持謹慎態度，並指出透過 Teads 的演算法，變現能力正逐步改善。

關於成本方面，即將卸任的財務長 Jason Kiviat 表示，扣除減損後，營業成本年減約 10%，但管理層認為仍有進一步調整成本結構的空間。

針對 CTV 業務，管理層將第三季的放緩歸因於部分季節性因素，並表示 10 月增長已再次加速。Teads 計劃利用其跨越超過 5 億台裝置的主畫面優勢，透過大型代理商銷售整合 CTV 與網路的行銷活動。

法說會完整逐字稿

完整財報電話會議逐字稿

管理層陳述

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.

分析師問答

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.