• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, June 4, 2008

Yahoo's future may be uncertain, but company president Sue Decker went out of her way today to send a message to Madison Avenue that it's still a major player in the online ad industry.

Even as rumors continued to swirl that Microsoft will revive buyout talks, that Google will start powering search ads, and that Jerry Yang's days as CEO may be numbered, Decker unveiled a host of ad and distribution deals.

Among other announcements, Yahoo said it has forged a deal with CBS to stream TV shows. With the move, Yahoo joins other Web companies including AOL, MSN, Google's YouTube, and Joost in distributing CBS content.

Yahoo also added 94 newspapers to its consortium, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Las Vegas Review Journal. With the new members, Yahoo is now powering at least some online ads for almost 800 newspapers, up from 176 at launch in November of 2006. Participating newspapers also can offer local advertisers online inventory on Yahoo.

In the announcement about this deal, the company boasts that members can "integrate Yahoo's paid search technology across their sites" -- which appears an odd selling point, given that Yahoo has said it's considering outsourcing paid search to Google.

The other big news from Yahoo was that the company will sell ads on Wal-Mart's Web site. Yahoo said in a statement that marketers who purchase ad inventory on Walmart.com will also be able "to take advantage of Yahoo and Walmart.com's partnership in the online retail category later this month."

Meanwhile, despite the flurry of deals, Decker also said the door is still open to a merger with Microsoft. Talks unraveled last month, with the companies unable to agree on a price. Microsoft initially offered $31 a share, which it later upped to around $33, but Yahoo reportedly was holding out for a figure closer to $37 a share.