Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky confirmed today that the agency is evaluating “strategic alternatives” for both of its struggling digital agencies Huge and R/GA.

Separately, the firm is ramping up a new principal buying operation in response to demand by some clients for the efficiencies the service will offer. 

Several weeks ago there were reports that IPG was talking to Tata Consulting Services about a sale of R/GA. At the time, the company declined to comment. 

Krakowsky’s comments, during a call with investors and analysts to discuss second-quarter earnings today, were the first time the firm has confirmed that both R/GA and Huge may be sold. 

Both agencies continue to be a drag on IPG’s earnings — by an estimated 1% in the second quarter.

Krakowsky suggested that greater value might be unlocked at the agencies with other partners. “We’ll keep you updated,” he said. 

If the agencies are sold off, Krakowsky explained, it would be part of a broader asset remix at the firm — IPG will also be considering larger acquisitions going forward to help foster a more rapid transformation and greater scale in the areas of commerce and retail media.

Currently, he acknowledged, “our asset mix doesn’t tilt as heavily at scale,” which is valued by some clients. 

Potential acquisitions would unlikely be of the scale of the $2.3 billion purchase of data and technology firm Acxiom Marketing Solutions in 2018, said Krakowsky, “but larger than the smaller deals we’ve been known for” more recently.  

Krakowsky said the principle buying operation is now “up and running,” although it is still early in the process and will take time to fully ramp up. “We’re very focused on it,” he said. 

He noted that IPG’s regular ongoing media group has “succeeded for a long time” without a principle buying component. But going forward he added the company will offer multiple buying models including full-service, principle- and performance-based.  

Some clients, he added, have put a “premium on efficiency,” given increasing pressure on their P&Ls partly attributable to rising macroeconomic and other uncertainties. 

On analyst asked Krakowsky about Google’s course reversal on cookies this week and whether that made Acxiom’s work on first-party data potentially less attractive to clients. He responded that Google’s cookie deprecation strategy has been “stop start, stop start,” so that the latest announcement “was not unexpected.” 

That said, he added, “clients need to take control of their first-party data,” and Acxiom helps sort out the complexities and opportunities of doing so. If cookies finally do go away at some point, that would represent a “modest incremental upside for us.”