WebProNews

Remember those rumors that certain tech companies had agreed to not poach each other's employees?  Well, it looks like Microsoft's accusers might owe the corporation an apology, as it's gotten a person each away from Yahoo and Google.

According to Todd Bishop, "Microsoft said this morning that it has . . . 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."  Which represents a pretty impressive catch.

Then, "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."  And in fact, Risvik spent about two years as a chief architect at Yahoo before going to Google, so his hire is almost doubly interesting.

Indeed, these moves prove that Microsoft is quite intent on catching up with (and presumably, surpassing) its rivals in the search industry.  Hiring competing talent seems like a simple way to do it, too.

You have to wonder if Google and Yahoo won't decide to lure a few people away from Redmond just for the heck of it in response.