Teads Q3 2026 Earnings Results & Report

Teads EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.48
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Teads Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $235.07 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Teads (NASDAQ:TEAD) is a global advertising technology company that operates an omnichannel digital advertising platform. The company connects advertisers and agencies with publishers and audiences across digital media, helping brands plan, buy, deliver and measure advertising campaigns through a combination of technology, data and creative services.

Its offerings include video, display, native, connected television and other digital advertising formats. Teads provides tools for campaign management, audience targeting, automated media buying, creative development and performance measurement. Its platform is designed to help publishers monetize editorial content while enabling advertisers to reach consumers across premium websites, mobile applications and other digital channels.

Teads traces its origins to 2011 and became known for developing outstream video advertising, which places video within editorial content rather than requiring a traditional video-player environment. The company has served advertisers, agencies and publishers internationally through operations and commercial relationships across major markets in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other regions. Following Outbrain’s acquisition of Teads, the combined company adopted the Teads name and began trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol TEAD.

Teads Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Negative Sentiment: Teads reported Q3 revenue of approximately $235 million, down 26% year over year, and Ex-TAC gross profit of $93.5 million, down 28%. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $8.1 million.
• Negative Sentiment: Open-internet pressures weighed heavily on results, especially in direct response and SME, where Ex-TAC gross profit fell 50%. Management cited publisher page-view declines of 20% to 60%, driven largely by AI search summaries and algorithm changes.
• Positive Sentiment: Connected TV remained a growth area, with revenue up 37% and representing about 20% of enterprise business. Teads said its HomeScreen footprint now exceeds 500 million devices and that CTV momentum is helping it sell broader omnichannel campaigns.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management saw some revenue improvement in October, citing operational progress and seasonality, but said industry headwinds continue. It plans further cost reviews; liquidity was about $140 million at quarter-end, including a new accounts-receivable facility.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to Teads' third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to the investor relations. Please go ahead.

[Company Representative, Teads]

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. These 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 31st, 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.

[Company Representative, Teads]

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, CEO at Teads]

Thank you, Maria, and good morning to everyone. For the third quarter, Ex-TAC gross profit reached approximately $94 million, Adjusted EBITDA was a negative $8.1 million, and our free cash flow before interest payments was a negative $1.4 million. Let me break down the dynamics within our two 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 moved through the close of the quarter and into October, we began seeing tangible revenue improvements.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

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 HomeScreen, 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 HomeScreen inventory, in many instances on an exclusive basis. We grew our leading global footprint of HomeScreen placements of more than 500 million devices worldwide through expanded partnerships, including with Pluto TV and Telly. Importantly, the CTV momentum is the hook that we expect to drive our broader omnichannel sales.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

Third-party research data supports that combining CTV and web campaigns through Teads delivers a 25% increase in total campaign impact 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.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

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.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

While Q3 was a challenging quarter, I want to frame our results around three key realities. One, CTV is our structural tailwind. Premium video budgets are expanding, and we are well-positioned to capture them through our HomeScreen 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. 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.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

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 feeds for more premium ad 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 break-even. We're driving operational efficiencies to improve our cash flow. We also focus on optimizing our capital structure and expect to continue to engage in constructive discussions with our debt holders 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 updates we announced this morning.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

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's 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, CFO at Teads]

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 am 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, CFO at Teads]

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, CFO at Teads]

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. 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.

[Jason Kiviat, CFO at Teads]

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 non-cash and does not impact our liquidity, operating cash flows, or debt covenants. Excluding the impact of this one-time non-cash 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 have made have been helpful, given the headwinds on our top line and volatility of the environment, we are further scrutinizing our cost structure.

[Jason Kiviat, CFO at Teads]

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 semi-annual interest payment made in August of $31 million. Free cash flow before interest payments was close to break-even at negative $1.4 million. Despite the use of cash, in part due to the seasonality and timing of interest payments, we are comfortable with our liquidity position. During the quarter, we closed on a new $125 million A/R 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.

[Jason Kiviat, CFO at Teads]

As of September 30th, we had total liquidity of approximately $140 million, inclusive of $90 million cash on hand and amounts under the A/R facility and our existing revolving credit facility. Also, and as David said, we are focused on evaluation of our costs and opportunities to improve our capital structure. Now, I will turn it back to the operator for Q&A.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Your first question comes from Laura Martin with Needham. Please go ahead.

[Laura Martin, Analyst at Needham]

Good morning. The first one, could you give us more granularity on what you are seeing in terms of traffic declines, specifically that is driving the downdraft in revenue? Then second, Jason or Mike, how much further can you go on cost cutting? Because I know that has been a focus since you guys closed Teads. How many more costs do you think you can cut out of the enterprise at this point? Thanks.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

Hey, Laura. Good morning. It is David. 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 is 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 have seen is a stabilization of that. The page view declines, we think they have reached, we hope they have reached the bottom, and we are also seeing better monetization of existing pages through better algorithmic improvements on our end. We think it is at the bottom, but these are the numbers that we see.

[Jason Kiviat, CFO at Teads]

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

[Laura Martin, Analyst at Needham]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Ed Alter with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Ed Alter, Analyst at Jefferies]

Good morning, everyone, and thanks, Jason, for all your time. I wanted to ask two 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? Then on CTV, looked like that slowed a little bit from the past couple quarters. I just want to talk about the trends there and kind of how that's trending into the back half of the year.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

Hey, Ed. It's David. 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. As we said, I think we already see October sort of reversing that trajectory. Across the open internet, we believe that, I mean, the two 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 inRead 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.

[David Kostman, CEO at Teads]

And particularly on the enterprise side, I think what we're seeing, where we're seeing success is selling omnichannel. Leveraging the growth in CTV that we see to sell better packages that combine CTV HomeScreen, 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 HomeScreen. And we, I think, are doing a much better job executing and packaging solutions which will combine that HomeScreen with in-stream, CTV, and web.

[Ed Alter, Analyst at Jefferies]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. 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, CEO at Teads]

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

[Operator]

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

Participants

Executives

• Company Representative
• David Kostman, CEO
• Jason Kiviat, CFO
• Michael Coyle, CFO

Analysts

• Laura Martin, Analyst at Needham
• Ed Alter, Analyst at Jefferies