The Trade Desk Signals It Is 'Looking More Now' at Acquisitions

The Trade Desk has announced exactly two acquisitions since its 2016 IPO — and on Monday night, CEO Jeff Green said the company is now scanning the market for deals more intensely than at any point in its history.

Speaking on the demand-side platform's third quarter earnings call, Green said: "Our philosophy on M&A has not fundamentally changed. We are always looking, and I will just transparently say we are looking more now than we historically have, partly because I just think there is a bunch of opportunity in the market that there has not been in the past."

For a company whose deal record fits on an index card, that is a notable admission.

What has the company actually bought?

The list is short:

• Adbrain, a London-based identity resolution company, acquired in October 2017.
• Sincera, a New York ad data startup The Trade Desk had already backed through its venture arm, acquired in January 2025.

AdExchanger reported a third deal in between, but the target was never named. The terms of the Sincera deal were not disclosed either. The Trade Desk's cash flow statement shows $4.35 million spent on a business acquisition in the first nine months of 2025 — the window in which Sincera closed. That figure is smaller than the annual marketing budget of many mid-sized ad tech firms, which puts the scale of the company's historical appetite in perspective.

Neither deal triggered a spending spree, and Green previously worked to keep it that way. Weeks after the Sincera news broke, he used his slot at the IAB's Annual Leadership Meeting to squash talk of a new acquisition strategy. Sincera's team was small, he told the room, before steering the conversation back to the technology The Trade Desk builds itself. Nearly two years on, the philosophy is officially unchanged. The amount of looking is not.

"We do not ever want to lose sight of the opportunity in front of us and do not want to get distracted through M&A, but at the same time recognize that that can help accelerate us," Green said.

What would a deal have to clear?

Green declined to name targets. Most of his answer described the bar a deal would have to clear, which he said is higher than it has ever been. Anything the company buys would have to fit the turnaround already underway.

"It is also critical to take away that our standards are also higher than ever," Green continued. "The reason why our standards are higher than ever is we have an opportunity to execute and accelerate our growth with all the changes that we have made in our business. I would never want to derail that by making our 17th priority our number one priority simply because we bought a company."

A high standard is easy to announce. It also gives management a ready explanation if no deal ever materializes.

Why now?

If The Trade Desk was ever going to break the habit of a lifetime, this would be the moment. Revenue has gone backwards for the first time since the IPO. Fourth quarter guidance sits roughly 11% below last year's. Amazon continues to eat into its share of the market.

Green has spent the year rebuilding from the inside: updates to the buying platform, a tighter focus on measurement, and a 15% workforce cut. Building alone has not fixed the business fast enough, and critics have spent months pointing to holes a purchase could plug — from its own identity data to retail transaction signals.

Does the company have the money?

The cash is already in the bank. The Trade Desk ended the third quarter with $1.23 billion in cash and cash equivalents, plus another $420 million in short-term investments, with no debt on its balance sheet.

What Green did not say is what a target might cost, which segments interest him, or whether talks with any seller are underway. The appetite is on record. The shopping list is not.