Trade Desk

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 27 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 14 later 8-Ks.

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

• Evolving industry standards regarding impression counts and related disputes and customer collections could impact our business and reputation.

  While we believe this is more positive than negative, the distress put on the sell-side caused by increased supply has in cases lowered costs per impressions (“CPMs”) for sellers and publishers and has in some cases (especially for non-premium sellers and publishers) also lowered their fill-rates in addition to CPMs charged. It has also lowered the transparency of some sellers when sending meta-data about individual ad opportunities. This stress on the system poses an incremental risk to all market participants, including us.

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• The market in which we participate is intensely competitive, and we may not be able to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.

  Could happen

  We operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing industry. We expect competition to persist and intensify in the future, which could harm our ability to increase revenue and maintain profitability. New technologies and methods of buying advertising present a dynamic competitive challenge, as market participants develop and offer new products and services aimed at capturing advertising spend or disrupting the digital marketing landscape, such as analytics, automated media buying and exchanges. Additionally, the impact of AI on our industry is still emerging and uncertain. We have been developing and implementing AI and machine learning models in our platform for nearly a decade and plan to continue such efforts, but there can be no assurance that our implementation of AI initiatives will continue to enhance our platform and related offerings in the manner we expect. We expect our AI initiatives will require increased investment in infrastructure. To the extent we fail to adopt such technologies effectively or as intended, experience delays in integrating these technologies into our operations or our competitors successfully implement improved AI technologies into their products or services, our ability to compete effectively could be harmed and our growth prospects and results of operations could be adversely affected.

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• Privacy and data protection laws to which we and our clients, inventory partners, and third-party data providers are subject may cause us to incur additional or unexpected costs, subject us to litigation, investigations or enforcement actions for alleged compliance failures, result in less demand for our offerings, or cause us to change our platform, related offerings or business model, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

  Could happen

  The global regulatory landscape regarding the privacy and protection of personal information is evolving, and U.S. (state, federal and local) and foreign governments continue to consider and enact additional legislation and rulemaking related to privacy and data protection, often with a particular focus on intermediaries in the online advertising ecosystem, including those that engage in targeted advertising, “sell” or “share” personal data, and act as “data brokers.” While a significant volume of laws has already been enacted, we expect to see additional data protection legislation and regulation in this area for the foreseeable future. For example, the FTC uses its enforcement powers under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (the “FTC Act”) (which prohibits “unfair” and “deceptive” trade practices) to investigate companies engaging in online tracking. In the preceding few years, the FTC has been very active in bringing enforcement actions against companies that handle personal data it views as sensitive for advertising purposes, including location data Table o f Contents brokers and companies that process health-related data. The FTC could continue to build on this trend under its authority to enforce a relatively new federal law focused on disclosures of certain “sensitive” information by companies operating as data brokers to certain restricted countries or entities “controlled” by such countries, and the Department of Justice could act on authority granted under an executive order restricting similar practices, for which regulations and guidance have recently taken effect. Other companies in the advertising technology space have been subject to government investigation by regulatory bodies; advocacy organizations have also filed complaints with data protection authorities against advertising technology companies, arguing that certain of these companies’ practices do not comply with data privacy laws, or consumer protection laws such as the FTC Act. As noted above, plaintiffs’ attorneys are also increasingly pursuing claims against advertising technology companies related to their data collection, use and disclosure practices, as well as advertisers and publishers that rely on services provided by these companies. For example, in March 2025, suits alleging various privacy tort theories were filed against us in the Northern District of California. For additional information regarding the pending legal proceedings, refer to Note 13—Commitments and Contingencies—Litigation . We cannot avoid the possibility that one of these investigations or enforcement actions will require us to alter our practices. In addition, a potential federal omnibus privacy law remains a possibility. If ultimately passed, such a law would likely substantially impact the online advertising ecosystem.

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• Evolving industry standards regarding impression counts and related disputes and customer collections could impact our business and reputation.

  Could happen

  In 2025, the global digital advertising ecosystem saw a large increase in supply (ad impression opportunities). Supply growth has meaningfully outpaced demand growth. Overall, we believe this is a positive development for us. This continues to shift the balance of power to the buy-side and the objectivity of our position (by not owning media) is more valuable in this strengthening buyer’s market.

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• Privacy and data protection laws to which we and our clients, inventory partners, and third-party data providers are subject may cause us to incur additional or unexpected costs, subject us to litigation, investigations or enforcement actions for alleged compliance failures, result in less demand for our offerings, or cause us to change our platform, related offerings or business model, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

  Could happen

  Increasingly, state laws require companies like ours to honor opt outs expressed through device-based preference signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”), which enable consumers to opt out of relevant activities by all data controllers at once rather than individually. California and other state regulators announced an enforcement sweep focused on how companies honor these signals and California recently enacted a law that will require all browser manufacturers to support the sending of these signals. The proliferation of these laws, including the obligation to honor device-based preference signals and the greater volume of such signals that is likely to result from California’s law, could result in lower availability of data within our platform, our related offerings and the advertising ecosystem more broadly, all of which could result in our platform and related offerings being less valuable to our clients and harm to our business.

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