Everyone got a chuckle yesterday when Microsoft said it had hired yet another Yahoo executive, Kevin Timmons, to lead its data center group. He joined a growing number of engineers and executives who have gone to Microsoft from Yahoo since the Redmond company failed in its bid to buy Yahoo outright, and shifted into an apparent strategy of acquiring it one person at a time.

In fact, Timmons isn’t the only Yahoo veteran picking up his Microsoft blue badge this week. No, this is not a joke. Confirming a tip we received, Microsoft said this morning that it has also hired Yongdong Wang, the former Yahoo vice president of international search, into an unspecified position reporting to Harry Shum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for search product development.

But wait, there’s more. Microsoft also confirmed this morning that it recently hired Knut Risvik, a former Google engineering director, as a partner architect focusing on Microsoft’s search platform and infrastructure. Guess where he worked before he went to Google? Yep, he was a Yahoo chief architect, having joined the Sunnyvale, Calif., company as part of its acquisition of Overture Services.

Counting Timmons, that’s a total of three more Yahoo execs now in the Microsoft fold — on top of those we knew about before this week. As noted yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in March that the company had already hired about 10 key Yahoo technologists.

Forget the incessant questions about a possible Microsoft-Yahoo partnership, someone should ask Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz at her next public appearance what she thinks about all this poaching. If anything could prompt another public f-bomb, this might be it.

By the way, our chart yesterday on the comings and goings among Microsoft, Yahoo and Google also overlooked Neal Gafter, a former Google staff software engineer who joined Microsoft as a partner architect last September. Amazingly, it appears he has never worked at Yahoo. Here’s an updated version of the chart below. Thanks to the tipster who let us know about the ones we missed.

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and Photo Gallery: Who did you miss at last night’s meetup?  

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for the DEMO/TechFlash/VentureBeat meetup. The room was packed, buzzing with energy.

I don’t think it was a sign of an economic recovery — as two people suggested to me. But it was good to hear people talking about startups, technology and innovation.

However, I must say I was stumped by questions from the podcasters at PR shop Porter Novelli who asked me who I would thank if I won the Nobel Prize; what the mascot would be for TechFlash and what actor would play me in a movie. Tough questions, and I was more comfortable talking about the startup climate.

Anyway, here’s a photo gallery from the event. 

Ben Huh of ICHC; Joe Heitzeberg of WhitePages and Bill Bryant of DFJ. Are they sharing their favorite FailBlog moments?

Tatango’s Alex Mittelstaedt and Andrew Dumont along with Kristi LeVeque of GeoPage. (Cameron Newland photo)

Clint Nelson and Marc Nager are now leading Startup Weekend, with the next event in Seattle slated for October 9.

Kismet’s Rob Nachbar; HelpLeaf’s Bruce Henry; and Yapta’s Jeff Pecor. Nachbar proudly showed the video capability on his new iPhone by showing a video of his newborn son.

Praerit Garg of Symform; Bill Bryant of DFJ; and Kevin Brown — who recently left Tableau Software for a new job at Symform — chat at the Spitfire bar.

Activewords’ Buzz Bruggeman with VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall. (Cameron Newland photo)

The DEMO team (Cameron Newland photo)

Todd Hooper of Napera; Michelle Mehl of Buzz Builders; and Kevin Foreman of Point Inside. They were chatting about open profiles on Facebook, URL shorteners and tech recruiting.

Matt Marshall entertained guests who were thinking of pitching their startup at the next DEMO. (Cameron Newland photo)

If you missed this meetup, don’t worry.

There’s plenty of networking to come, including the nPost Demo shindig at the Columbia City Theater tonight and the WTIA’s social media panel at Herban Feast tomorrow.

And don’t forget to sign up for the TechFlash Summer BBQ & Ping-Pong Tourney on July 23rd. (From what I gathered last night, there are quite a few top-notch pongers — and BBQ aficionados — out there).

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and Dendreon to spend $50 million on New Jersey biotech facility  

Dendreon — which is developing a treatment for prostrate cancer — must be feeling pretty good about its prospects following positive research around its Provenge product.  In an SEC filing Monday, the Seattle biotech company said that it is spending $50.5 million to have its Morris Plains, New Jersey biotechnology processing facility completed by April 2010.

The upgrade in facilities could be crucial for Dendreon, since it is expected to begin selling Provenge early next year. And the company is making sure that its construction firm hits certain completion targets.

Built into the agreement with the construction firm are incentives to get the the two phases of the project completed on time. It wants a data center, laboratories, training areas and other offices completed before December 18, and a clean room, production support area and warehouse completed by April 23, 2010.

Last month, the company raised $221 million through a stock offering with some of that money slated for manufacturing facilities.

Meanwhile, The Motley Fool discusses whether now is the time to cash out of Dendreon. The stock hit an all-time high last week, prompting The Motley Fool to run a poll of whether investors should hold on or sell.

At last count, 63 percent of investors said it was better to keep all of your money in the stock while 12 percent said to get out "while the gettin’ is good."

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Jobvana nails new capital  

Just three months after raising cash, Jobvana is back at the capital well. The Seattle startup — which operates a social network used by small businesses to market products and services — has attracted an undisclosed round of financing from Rally Capital that it will use to ramp up marketing efforts.

"The ability for us to grow faster and form a partnership with Rally seemed like a win-win situation for us," said Jobvana Chief Executive Nathan Casey, who founded the company last year after losing his job at Washington Mutual.

The deal follows an investment in March by Hawkeye Investments, which is led by telecommunications executive and Yahoo board member John Chapple. Rally Capital — whose managing partner is Dennis Weibling — is closely connected to Hawkeye since both Chapple and Weibling served on the board of Nextel Partners.

Jobvana recently unveiled a new Web site and national marketing campaign, a move to build upon the more than 30,000 businesses now using the service, Casey said.

Small business owners — everyone from graphic designers to carpenters — utilize Jobvana to tout services and make connections with other business people. It also gives them a basic Web presence — simialar to Yelp or LinkedIn — to market what they do.

"Small businesses thrive on personal connections, word of mouth referrals and their local community – with social networking, we bring this online and combine it with our social media expertise and easy-to-use marketing tools to give users maximum exposure to quality, targeted customers.

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