IPG today reported a $232.1 million impairment charge related to its digital specialist agencies and the ongoing sales process for those agencies—R/GA and Huge.  

The company’s third quarter net revenue was down 2.9% to $2.24 billion while organic revenue was reported as flat. But that figure excludes Huge and R/GA, which the company is now classifying as “held for sale.”  

CEO Philippe Krakowsky had disclosed in July that the company was considering strategic alternatives for the two digital agencies. Earlier there were reports that the company was discussing a sale of R/GA with Tata Consulting Services, but no deal has been announced to date. 

The two digital agencies have been called out by the firm as a drag on IPG revenue and earnings for well over a year.  

Krakowsky said the company is focused on achieving 1% net organic revenue growth for full-year 2024. That would exclude the reclassified digital agencies. 

“During the quarter, we saw solid contributions to growth from media services, sports marketing, data management and public relations,” stated Krakowsky. “Our adjusted EBITA [earnings before interest, taxes and amortization] margin was 17.2%, underscoring continued operating discipline as we continue our enterprise-wide investments in growth and business transformation.” 

Last week the firm announced the launch of its Interact operating system, which Krakowsky said “marks the next evolution of our marketing intelligence engine."  

He added that “we are seeing a strong new business pipeline, for both Q4 activity and longer-term AOR opportunities.” 

For the first nine months of the year net revenue was $6.75 billion, down 0.9%. Organic revenue growth for the nine-month period was 1%.  

IPG is the third major ad marketing group to report Q3 results behind Omnicom and Publicis Group, which reported last week.