“We’re very excited to have Dayne Sampson join the team, reporting to Debra Chrapaty, corporate vice president, Global Foundation Services,” a Microsoft spokesperson commented about the hire. “Operations and foundation services are key to delivering the Microsoft Software plus Services vision, and Dayne’s extensive operations and industry experience will be a strong asset for GFS and the company.”

Sampson’s departure follows similar migrations by Sean Suchter, Yahoo’s VP of search technology; Qi Lu, one of its top search scientists; Larry Heck, former VP of search & advertising sciences at Yahoo Labs; and Jan Pedersen, who was once chief scientist and VP of Yahoo’s (YHOO) Search and Advertising Technology Group. As I said last week, If Yahoo employee defections to Microsoft continue apace, there may come a day when Redmond will no longer need to buy the struggling company’s search business. It will already have acquired it.

Oh, one last thing: time to update that LinkedIn profile, Dayne…