This isn't surprising. The brothers who founded dMarc have left the company, apparently due to disagreements about sales tactics and disappointment over compensation.

Chad and Ryan Steelberg resigned amid reports that they disagreed with how Google automated the sales process.

A tipster told Valleywag last week:

Google has not wanted to roll-out human sales folks to pitch, explain and train the automated radio buying tools to advertisers and radio buyers, believing instead that the self-service tools will sell themselves and the buyers will just come. Google's 'product is king' philosophy is that sales people just pick up check and service customers, they are not really needed to generate the business, products do that. This has significantly suppressed the sales that the dMarc folks had expected to be able to generate. Lack of this demand creation is one of the reasons that Google has not been able to be aggressive yet in acquiring radio inventory (without orders, it is all "risk" buying). Word is that the dMarc folks will be lucky to pick up $150-200m of the earn-out potential). The CBS deal, if it happens soon, might change things, but the dMarc folks are not feeling very loved.

Being unfamiliar with radio ad sales, I can't offer any perspective on the apparent conflict in sales strategies. But a simple understanding of human nature--not to mention familiarity with Google's hubris--leads me to suspect that the radio industry doesn't appreciate Google's ham-handed approach to its market. And while I believe Google's methodical, algo-based approach to ad sales is likely to be more efficient than other methods, I have no doubt the search giant could benefit from a human touch. If you're going to move somebody's cheese, be prepared to talk to them about it.

These lessons would also do Google well in Washington, where its struggles are well-documented.