Trade Desk shareholders have contended with a 66% slump in the stock price so far this year. This week, Chief Executive Jeff Green gave himself -- and many of his employees -- a do-over.
The advertising technology company repriced 1.6 million options for Green, another 1.6 million for other senior executives, plus millions more spread across more than 2,000 other employees. The move transformed the options from deeply underwater to slightly in the money as of Friday, when Trade Desk closed at $13 a share.
In a securities filing, the company said it had been concerned the share price's tumble could "substantially harm" its ability to retain employees who hold the options.
Corporate executives often get much of their pay in the form of stock or options, as a way to motivate and reward them for the stock's appreciation. In turn, if the stock slumps, they receive less -- or from options, potentially nothing. When Trade Desk slashed the cost to exercise options by as much as 85%, to $12.26, it effectively wiped away months of losses other investors have borne.
Repricing is rare and often opposed by investors, though defenders of the practice argue it can be necessary to retain talent in turbulent times. Critics argue repricing flies in the face of holding managers accountable for stock performance.
"The pricing represents a significant giveaway to executives," wrote Amy Pessetto, an analyst with VerityData, which tracks insider holdings for investors.
A Trade Desk spokesman said repricing was "a more disciplined choice than issuing new awards" and was intended to motivate employees.
"We felt strongly that this was the best decision for employees, customers and shareholders and are confident in our path forward," the spokesman said.
Shareholders approved the move this week in a nearly 2-to-1 vote, though that was because Green's shares alone added up to about 98% of the "yes" vote. The CEO and co-founder holds just over 50% of Trade Desk's voting power, thanks largely to supervoting shares, according to a September securities filing by Trade Desk.
Absent his shares, the vote would have failed with about 95% opposed, VerityData concluded.
"In effect, Green carried a vote on repricing his own options over the clear objection of outside shareholders," Pessetto wrote. "The optics are bad and the repricing shows little confidence that the stock can recover to the original strikes on its own."
To keep the new price, executives and employees must remain employed and wait until at least April 19 to exercise the options, "which ties their outcome directly to shareholders," the Trade Desk spokesman said. The repricing also applied to options on just over 12 million shares held by more than 2,300 other company employees. In September, the company said it was laying off 15% of its workforce, which stood at 3,800 people at the end of 2025.
The slump in Trade Desk's shares has slashed as much as $2.7 billion in value from Green's stake in the company since mid-2025, leaving him holding just under $700 million in shares at Friday's share price.
The year brought some bright spots for Green, however. In September -- after the board approved repricing the options and before the shareholder vote -- Trade Desk's directors granted Green an additional one-time special award of stock options on seven million shares with a strike price of $14.97. The new options vest if Trade Desk's stock reaches price thresholds from $18 to $105 a share.
Since 2021, U.S. publicly traded companies have repriced options around 220 times, VerityData found, many of them small and microcap biotechnology companies with volatile shares and long strategic horizons. Around a third of the time, repricing excluded top executives.
Moderna repriced options for nonexecutive employees in late 2025, reducing the number of shares underlying the instruments. Zillow repriced options in 2022, and EchoStar did in 2024, VerityData said.
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