Merger talks between Yahoo and AOL are back on the table, as Yahoo's board has reportedly cleared the way for new discussions between the two companies. If a deal is eventually reached between the two companies, AOL's chunk of the search market would help Yahoo gain a larger lead over Microsoft in the search wars, and Time Warner will finally have talked someone into taking AOL off its hands.

News about Yahoo's plans comes from the ever-popular "person familiar" with the situation speaking to the Financial Times. The anonymous source noted, however, that while the board has approved a new round of discussions with AOL, there are currently no active deal negotiations.

Yahoo first began courting AOL this past spring, as it searched for ways to escape Microsoft's unwelcome advances. Once it became clear that Microsoft was primarily after Yahoo's search business, a key aspect of the negotiations was finding a way to ensure that Yahoo remained a viable entity if search were sold off. Enter AOL: it was already put on the market by Time Warner, and combining its portal with Yahoo's would expand Yahoo's scope. Talks between Yahoo and Time Warner about AOL's future became more serious in July, when it came out that a deal between Yahoo and AOL could result in Time Warner retaining a stake in the combined company. Since then, however, things have cooled down a bit.

The renewed talks come a week after Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes told investors that the company would determine AOL's future "fairly soon." Microsoft is also said to be interested in AOL, although it doesn't look as if anything serious is going on there yet either. As we observed in July, Microsoft would also benefit from snapping up AOL's user population in order to finally make some headway on Google, although the direct benefits for Microsoft don't seem to be as strong as they would be for Yahoo. Microsoft may have other interests in mind when it comes to its own talks with AOL, however. By simply entering negotiations with AOL, Microsoft would drive up the asking price, making a buyout by Yahoo more costly.