AOL (NYSE: TWX), feeling a bit left out in the last few weeks as things turned really ugly in the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Microsoft and Carl Icahn ménage à trois, is now accelerating its own sale talks. Its reluctant parent Time Warner has been talking to Microsoft and Yahoo separately, and has intensified deals talks ahead of Yahoo’s crucial Aug 1 shareholders meeting, reports Reuters. Some scenarios: a deal with Yahoo would likely involve merging it with AOL, with Time Warner taking a minority stake in the combined company. A deal with Microsoft would likely be an outright sale of AOL to the software giant.

AOL is already splitting off its ISP business and focusing on its content/apps online services, as well as its sprawling online ad services under Platform-A. Yahoo’s merger with AOL is one way it could show its shareholders that it could grow without Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). For Microsoft, buying out AOL would mean bulking up its online and mobile advertising business as well as gain more traffic...it certainly wouldn’t be about the search business, something Microsoft was originally pining for in the Yahoo deal.

Meanwhile, for some perspective on the state of affairs among all of these players, you might find some solace in Spencer Davis Group’s ”Please Do Something”. Really, please do…