Overview
Cohen Milstein represents Arkansas Public Employees’ Retirement System and Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi and other investors who purchased The Trade Desk, Inc. common stock from November 15, 2023, through August 8, 2025, inclusive (the “class period”) in this consolidated securities class action.
Plaintiffs allege that Trade Desk and Trade Desk’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Jeff Green, former Chief Financial Officer Laura Schenkein, and director and Chief Strategy Officer Samantha Jacobson made repeated misstatements and omissions about the success of the company’s new ad-buying platform called Kokai. As the truth was fully revealed, investors lost a staggering $42 billion in shareholder value from December 4, 2024, to August 8, 2025, alone.
Plaintiffs also claim that during this time, the named executive officers were profiting from insider sales of their shares at prices inflated by their false and misleading statements, selling more than $465 million of their stock.
Important Rulings
- On June 4, 2025, Judge Christina A. Snyder of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California appointed Cohen Milstein Lead Counsel for the proposed class.
Case Background
The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD), is an advertising technology company that operates a digital platform that helps advertisers place ads, including on websites, podcasts, and streaming services. Plaintiffs allege that Trade Desk and its senior officers made material misstatements and omissions regarding Trade Desk’s critical new ad-buying platform called Kokai, including that Kokai—the Company’s key product—had been quickly adopted by Trade Desk customers and was driving revenue to the Company. As Defendants knew, but hid from investors, the reality was far different: adoption of Kokai was lagging and, as a result, it was not driving revenue; critical features of the platform simply did not work or had not yet even been developed; and the defendants were manipulating metrics to conceal Kokai’s wide-ranging deficiencies.
Ultimately, the truth was revealed in a series of disclosures:
- First, on February 12, 2025, the defendants publicly admitted that Kokai adoption was slower than expected due to the company’s execution missteps, resulting in Trade Desk’s first-ever revenue miss. This news caused Trade Desk’s stock price to plummet, dropping an extraordinary 30%.
- Then, just a few weeks later, on March 11, 2025, an AdWeek exposé revealed for the first time that Kokai was suffering from fundamental deficiencies, causing serious client complaints and the lagging adoption rates, and resulting in a “reduc[tion in] the use and function of The Trade Desk’s buying platform.”
- Finally, due to Kokai’s continued deficiencies and incomplete adoption, the Company disclosed on August 7, 2025, lower-than-expected revenue growth, again as a result of lagging Kokai adoption, as well as and the departure of its CFO, Laura Schenkein. This news caused Trade Desk’s stock to plummet again by an additional 39%.
Plaintiffs further allege that while investors were suffering these extreme losses, the Trade Desk’s executive defendants were profiting tremendously from insider sales of their shares at prices inflated by their misrepresentations. Over the course of the class period, they sold more than $465 million of their stock, with Jeff Green alone selling over $443 million. These sales vastly exceeded the defendants’ pre-class period sales and were suspiciously timed, with large sales made on the same day as or immediately following the defendants’ false and misleading statements and omissions and with Jeff Green selling $48 million in stock just one day before the February 12, 2025, corrective disclosure and stock price crash.