Yahoo wants to hire AOL's Ad.com CEO, Ned Brody, as its head of US ad sales.
The offer is good enough that Brody has already resigned his position at AOL, Kara Swisher reports and AOL confirms.
Here's the problem: Brody signed an non-compete agreement with AOL.
Yahoo's solution, according to Swisher: Pay Brody to not work for the next year.
Yahoo does need a head of sales very badly.
Since Marissa Mayer became CEO of Yahoo last year and interim CEO Ross Levinsohn left, that people working in Yahoo sales have felt ignored and disorganized.
Mayer does not care much about salesmanship. Meanwhile, former colleagues say her COO, Henrique De Castro, isn't much of a people person.
We're hearing whispers that display advertising sales were off in the first quarter.
Because the Yahoo offer was so big, AOL did not make a counter-offer to keep Brody, Swisher says.
The poaching comes at a bad time for AOL.
Just two months ago, AOL re-organized the entire company around three main businesses, and Brody's Ad.com was one of them.
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