Dendreon continues to bulk up as it anticipates FDA approval of its prostate cancer treatment Provenge. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that the Seattle biotech is considering spending $80 million on a new manufacturing plant near the Atlanta airport, a facility that could create 300 jobs.  

Dendreon didn’t comment on the report. But the company is in the midst of a major expansion. Last month, the PSBJ’s Jeanne Lang Jones reported that Dendreon was looking to double the size of its downtown headquarters as well as secure about 250,000 square feet of lab space in the city. 

It also recently announced a $50 million expansion of its plant in New Jersey.

As of last March, Dendreon employed 198 workers. But the company — which raised $221 million last month — has been on a hiring spree. Its Web site lists more than 75 jobs openings in Seattle and New Jersey.

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and Is Big Brother watching? Orwell’s classics removed from the Kindle  

A dust up up between Amazon.com and a book publisher has resulted in the mysterious removal of George Orwell’s "1984" and "Animal Farm" from the Kindle electronic book reader.

David Pogue at The New York Times reports that Amazon.com "caved" after the book publisher decided that it didn’t want to distribute the titles via the Kindle. The problem? 

Kindle customers had already purchased the books, though Pogue notes that Amazon.com credited their accounts for the books.

Pogue writes:

"This is ugly for all kinds of reasons. Amazon says that this sort of thing is “rare,” but that it can happen at all is unsettling; we’ve been taught to believe that e-books are, you know, just like books, only better. Already, we’ve learned that they’re not really like books, in that once we’re finished reading them, we can’t resell or even donate them. But now we learn that all sales may not even be final.

"As one of my readers noted, it’s like Barnes & Noble sneaking into our homes in the middle of the night, taking some books that we’ve been reading off our nightstands, and leaving us a check on the coffee table."

This is the second piece of negative PR for Amazon.com this week, following news that a Seattle man had sued the company over a cracked Kindle screen.

Earnings are out next week. Maybe that will patch things up.

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and NWCN Talkin’ Tech: Amazon, Bill Gates, Microsoft and netbooks  

Here is this week’s installment of NorthWest Cable News’ Talkin’ Tech, with NWCN’s Erik Sandoval giving an overview of the week’s tech news (including Amazon’s cracked Kindle covers) and me discussing our story on Microsoft’s love-hate relationship with netbooks.

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PSBJ reveals 40 Under 40  

The Puget Sound Business Journal today released this year’s 40 Under 40 honorees, an awards ceremony that honors business leaders in the Seattle area under the age of 40. This year’s list is packed with techies, including many familiar names from the startup community.

Among those who made the cut from a group of more than 200 applications were Cozi’s Robbie Cape, Delve Networks’ Alexander Castro, Clearwire’s Hope Cochran, Madrona Venture Group’s Greg Gottesman, AdReady’s Aaron Finn and Redfin’s Glenn Kelman.

You can see the full list here.

Past winners include Ben Elowitz of Wetpaint (2008); Ian Blaine of ThePlatform (2007); Bryan Mistele of Inrix (2006); Paul Thelen of Big Fish Games (2005); and Ian Morris of Market Leader (2004).

The honorees are chosen by past winners and judges from the business community.

The big event will be held September 15th. The Puget Sound Business Journal is the publisher of TechFlash. 

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