MDC Partners confirmed Thursday night that it intends to consider "potential strategic alternatives" that could include the sale of the agency holding company, whose portfolio includes 72andSunny, Anomaly, Assembly, Colle McVoy and Doner.

"The Company has not made a decision to pursue any specific strategic alternative, and there is no timetable for completing the strategic review process," the company said in a statement after The Wall Street Journal reported the news, attributing it to unnamed sources. "This review process is proceeding in parallel with the Company's previously announced search to identify a successor CEO."

There is "no assurance that the Company will pursue or complete any specific action or transaction," MDC said.

Just last week, the holding company said CEO and chairman Scott Kauffman will step down once a successor is found. Kauffman will continue as a member of the agency company's board of directors following the appointment of a new CEO.

MDC hasn't had an easy 2018. Kauffman in May called the advertising holding company's first-quarter results "unacceptable," citing client cutbacks and slower conversion in its new-business pipeline.

And the company's leadership hasn't been shy about discussing trimming its portfolio. In its second-quarter earnings report last month, MDC said it was looking into possible dispositions of non-core assets or those that "might be more valuable in someone else's hands."

Earlier this week, MDC agencies Forsman & Bodenfors and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners announced they were combining under the Forsman & Bodenfors name.