As AOL (NYSE: TWX) takes control of Bebo, don’t overlook Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). The social network in September struck a deal with the portal to power its display advertising in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and provide other services. Since AOL’s acquisition looks mostly about marrying Bebo with AOL’s Platform-A and Advertising.com offerings, don’t be surprised to see the ad deal, at least, fall away.

Yahoo told us today: “Yahoo Europe has a strong partnership with Bebo, which continues to deliver value to our advertisers and publishers.  Our exclusive strategic partnership consists of three major components in the areas of display advertising, search including Yahoo Answers and a branded toolbar. Alongside this, Yahoo has opened up some applications to the Bebo community including Yahoo Music Videos.”

Still, Bebo professes to be an “open network” - it remains to be seen whether AOL will favour inclusion of its content on Bebo and the removal of Yahoo’s, but Bebo president Joanna Shields, speaking to us yesterday, said it was too early to say: ”Yahoo has been a great partner to Bebo. This (the AOL deal) isn’t over until it’s approved, until we get regulatory approval, so it’s not closed. We’re not going to talk about partnerships, we’re going to continue business as usual.”

As a backdrop - Google (NSDQ: GOOG) owns five percent of AOL, so there could be justification in disassociating Yahoo from Bebo. Or - Yahoo may yet be involved in some kind of acquisition involving AOL, so could yet be integrated still further with Bebo.

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