US adtech giant The Trade Desk lays off 15% of global workforce; Singapore team affected
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Affected employees left the firm on Sept 4.
PHOTO: THE TRADE DESK/FACEBOOK
- The Trade Desk has cut 15% of its global workforce, including employees in Singapore, as part of a restructuring exercise.
- The company has over 3,500 employees worldwide before the job cuts, with more than 140 in Singapore.
- CEO Jeff Green highlighted the company’s strong cash position of about US$1.5 billion and plans to reorganise teams into smaller, more focused groups to adapt to market complexities.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – US advertising technology giant The Trade Desk (TTD) has retrenched 15 per cent of its workforce globally, including some employees in Singapore.
Its founder and chief executive Jeff Green announced the layoffs in an e-mail to his staff on Sept 3. The e-mail was also published on TTD-owned adtech news platform The Current.
Affected employees left the firm on Sept 4.
“This was a difficult decision that we have not taken lightly,” Green said in the e-mail.
While retrenchment is “a common practice in big tech, this has not been a common practice at TTD”, he added. “We don’t expect it to become one.”
TTD is headquartered in Ventura, California, and has offices around the world, including in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, Seoul, Shenzhen and Taipei.
The company operates a self-service platform that allows firms to buy and place targeted digital ads automatically across the internet, so they do not have to contact individual websites directly.
It had more than 3,500 employees worldwide before the latest job cuts.
Jobs platform LinkedIn suggests that TTD has over 140 employees in Singapore. As at Sept 7, the platform shows a Singapore-based job opening for a senior director of business development for the Asia-Pacific.
On Sept 4 and 5, LinkedIn users who identified themselves as TTD employees in Singapore spoke about the layoff in public posts.
“Today I say goodbye to six years of adventure and growth at The Trade Desk,” said one user, who identified herself as an employee in creative strategy and operations.
Another user who identified herself as an employee in client services said she was made redundant on Sept 4. “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
The layoffs came after TTD’s disappointing financial guidance, which put pressure on its stock price.
During the recent earnings call, Green said: “Our revenue growth is below our expectations and below the standard we hold ourselves to.”
But he stressed that the company has approximately US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and no debt on its balance sheet. This allows it to invest in strategic areas such as artificial intelligence and media measurement tools.
Green also said the company will focus on streamlining its operations. “We want our teams to be organised into smaller pods and smaller scrums, but with greater focus,” he added.
The Straits Times has contacted TTD for the number of employees affected in Singapore.
