AOL has hired a pair of New York investment bankers, Morgan Stanley and Allen & Co., to manage the sale of its ICQ instant-messaging unit.

Sources familiar with the situation said interest in buying the asset from two major non-U.S. companies prompted execs at the online service to put a process in place for a deal that will likely occur after AOL becomes an independent company in December.

AOL is set to spin itself off in less than a month from corporate owner Time Warner (TWX), and sources said selling off peripheral properties likes ICQ is part of becoming a smaller, more focused company.

Sources added that AOL now wants about $300 million for the property.

ICQ, which was once of the most explosive online communications tools, has lagged since AOL bought its popular software for $287 million in 1998, with another $125 million in earnouts for the team then. It was part of an Tel Aviv, Israel, start-up called Mirabilis.

While ICQ has about 40 million to 50 million unique monthly visitors and is the No. 1 messaging service in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Israel and other small countries, its has less traction in the U.S. than bigger rival services from Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and Google (GOOG). In addition, Facebook and Twitter have also become major players in the status-update space.

AOL’s AIM service, in contrast, is quite strong, typically clocking as one of the top instant-messaging properties.

Said one source about the sale of ICQ, which is still based in Israel with about 100 employees and is moderately profitable: “AOL now has to be asking the hard questions.”

Those hard questions include massive layoffs, which BoomTown reported last week will take place soon. AOL then formally acknowledged the cuts, noting in a regulatory filing that Time Warner would take a $200 million charge for them.

Other AOL properties are also likely to be getting the once-over for sale, including its Bebo social networking site, which AOL bought for $850 million in 2008. But that is not imminent.

Yahoo has hired a new head of mergers and acquisitions–former General Electric (GE) M&A exec Andrew Siegel, who will now be VP of corporate development.

Yahoo (YHOO) CFO Tim Morse dropped the news with exactly no details about that title in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings.

Another question apparently not answered was what exactly is the status of its current top M&A exec, Greg Mrva–who has had the title Siegel has now posted on his LinkedIn profile–as well as that of VP of mergers and acquisitions more recently.

In other words: Where the heck is Greg?

BoomTown was considering a search party–get it?–if Yahoo hadn’t outsourced that to Microsoft (MSFT). Thus, Plan B: Mrva milk cartons!

On Facebook, Mrva is still listed as being in the Yahoo network, although there was a report floated recently by Silicon Alley Insider that he was asked by Morse to leave his M&A job at Yahoo and find a new one at the company.

Whatever the situation–either Mrva running it with Siegel or being hipchecked out by him–helming M&A at Yahoo can’t be a fun job right now, given that the company has been looking to sell quite a few of its assets, including its Zimbra open-source email business, its personals unit, its HotJobs online classified business and many more to come, said sources.

In fact, in a recent post, BoomTown wrote: “Mrva’s new job title should be: VP of un-mergers and de-acquisitions.”

The effort to unload big swathes of Yahoo is part of an aim by new management to slim down its diverse portfolio, even as it strives to redefine itself with a new, pricey marketing campaign that seeks to position the company primarily as a consumer offering.

Mrva has been the main exec shopping Yahoo properties around, according to many sources, a job that will now apparently be Siegel’s.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has said the company is also looking for acquisitions, mostly small, so perhaps there will be more to do for the company’s dealmakers than running an Internet garage sale.

I contacted Yahoo to find out what’s up with Siegel and Mrva, a well-liked exec in Silicon Valley, and also have reached out to him. When either responds with anything of note, I will update here.

Here come more tech earnings this week, as investors hope the industry can help goose a still shaky economy.

But while the tech industry is healthy, relatively speaking, they probably should not hope too hard to be soaring anytime soon on Silicon Valley’s digital flying carpet.

Last week, Intel (INTC) and Nokia (NOK) both turned in not-so-pretty performances, due to the econalypse, although management was hoping for better days ahead.

Google (GOOG), as it is wont to do, surprised Wall Street with its surprise profit performance, although its sales juggernaut was showing some serious signs of wheezing.

But that was so last week.

IBM (IBM) is first out of the gate today, with analysts expecting a slight earnings increase on declining revenue from a year ago. As long as the tech giant reports a “meh” and not an “ugh,” all will be right here.

Yahoo (YHOO), on the other hand, will get a much closer look-see tomorrow, as most are guessing that its online advertising business has been hard hit and that its previous cost-cutting has not yet made enough of a difference.

In fact, no one is expecting much at all from Yahoo, other than a huge dropoff–almost 30 percent–in profits and a large one–just over 10 percent–in revenues. Ouch!

Most of the questions about Yahoo will likely focus will be on three things:

1.) Whether Yahoo will make an announcement about additional cost cuts, specifically, more layoffs.

2.) Whether CEO Carol Bartz will answer any questions about discussions with Microsoft about search and ad partnership discussions.

3.) What folksy or ribald phrase Bartz will use to describe Yahoo’s current state. Her last one using attack chickens was most excellent.

Apple (AAPL) will report Wednesday and it will likely be all about the iPhone, the exploding apps ecosystem and whether the company can keep on selling its computers in a down economy.

One wonders if someone will ask for a reaction about those new Microsoft commercials, which loudly pointing out how much pricier Apple products are.

Earnings are expected to decline slightly with revenues up slightly.

And, of course, the health of Apple leader Steve Jobs, who is on leave, will also be top of mind on the call, although it is unlikely that the company will comment, as usual.

Lastly, this week, Microsoft (MSFT) will also weigh in on Thursday, with everyone wondering how its powerful main software business is doing, as well as how its less-than-powerful online business is faring.

Also critical will be the company’s outlook on the upcoming rollouts of its redone search service and its Windows 7 launch.

Both earnings and revenue are expected to be down slightly for Microsoft.

But, in this quarter at least, down slightly is the new up.

Yesterday, TechCrunch’s U.K. blogger Mike Butcher spun the tale of buyer’s remorse run amok with a report that Time Warner online unit AOL was “seriously considering selling Bebo, the social network it acquired for $850 million only a year ago,” citing poor performance and a bad advertising market.

Later, AOL went on the record saying “there is no truth to this rumor,” although Butcher–in a third update to his piece–insisted otherwise from his sources.

In my favorite hedge ever, Butcher noted: “I’m not saying Bebo is formally on the block, but I am saying that a sale is something under consideration.”

Well, actually, no.

What is true, which Butcher did do an excellent job outlining, is that AOL most certainly overestimated the prospects for Bebo as an advertising and growth vehicle, hoping that Bebo’s interesting new media offerings–like its “KateModern” online series–combined with a social network, were the magic bullet.

It did not hurt that Bebo was then being sold to advertisers by its very deft top exec Joanna Shields, who is now head of AOL’s People Networks.

Thus, AOL woefully overpaid for it, especially if you look back from the current dire economic environment and also now realize that social-networking advertising is a little bit harder to get going than promised (a shock, I know).

No inside sources you talk to at AOL or Time Warner (TWX) will deny any of this today, and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has even said so publicly.

This was not exactly a secret then either. As I wrote right after the sale last March:

What’s AOL getting for its $850 million in cash to purchase social-networking site, Bebo?

A very attractive social-networking service and a very experienced exec who has been running it.

But, perhaps more importantly for those who focus on pesky numbers, not a whole lot of revenue and negligible profits, judging financial information I got a gander at, courtesy of sources at several companies that looked at funding or buying Bebo.

And the rest of the overall outlook for Bebo? A small but growing business, with nice user engagement with strong page views and minutes spent per session, but little traction beyond Britain and Ireland, and too small a presence in the critical U.S. market.

(Bebo is also strong in New Zealand, but BoomTown does not have to point out that that country is not exactly the kind of game-changer that AOL CEO Randy Falco mentioned in his email to the troops about the purchase.)”

And in another post I did at the time:

Thus, I am still trying to figure out why AOL–which was built on the pillars of community, communications and connectivity–has consistently not been able to leverage its still-valuable assets.

I suppose it is sexier to do a big, splashy deal, of course, which takes focus away–for a while at least–of the essential need to take hits, while doing the slow block-and-tackle work it will require to really build a strong ad and social network.

Buying Bebo, the third-ranked social network, for so much and trying to turbocharge it is a very lofty goal, of course, but the real problem with the acquisition is that it feels like an answer in search of a question.

While Bebo President Joanna Shields–who will enter the AOL exec team as part of the deal–and the Birches have clearly built a very interesting property, the weight of Falco’s calling it a “game-changer” on which AOL’s future rides could turn out to be much too much for Bebo to carry.

That is, especially with that heavy bag of Time Warner cash it is also shouldering.”

That’s why it takes about two seconds these days to uncover much residual anger within both AOL and Time Warner about the huge slug of cash that the company handed over to get Bebo, which mostly went to its quirky founders (who, many sources told BoomTown, thought they were underpaid!).

But, even so, that does not mean Time Warner is going to pull yet another stupid Internet trick–remember this was the company that sold itself to AOL for a song back in 2000, in what is now considered one of the worst merger deals ever–and sell Bebo for bupkis.

In fact, spending even more effort, it has been trying to use Bebo as the main vehicle to renovate all its communications assets, including its unsung AIM and ICQ instant messaging properties.

The center of the People Networks, run by Shields, Bebo is the third leg of the “new” AOL, as it has been recently touted, with its Platform-A ad unit and new niche content studio called MediaGlow as the other parts of the stool.

Will it all work? Will Time Warner change its mind? Will Shields give up? Will even the AOL brand continue?

“Who knows?” is the right answer, of course. With Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), as well as Twitter and FriendFeed, all vying to be the consumer’s dashboard to the Web, no one actually does.

And, if Time Warner is truly interested in selling off AOL whole, as it has been trying to do mightily, you might wonder if it would suddenly change course and dismember it now, causing even more confusion, when it is already facing so many other more pressing complications–all for a lousy price in the current weak economic landscape?

I called it “insane” when AOL bought Bebo for so much last year. I’d be dubious if it would get crazier still.

But if you want to see Shields in action–be careful, as she apparently so persuasive she could probably sell a big bailout to a Republican–take a look at this video I did a while back before the AOL acquisition:

That is all.

Wait, not all. The report that it has signed a bill of sale earlier this week that “definitely happened”: It definitely did not.

What is true: Bebo is raising money and it is open to selling and there has been interest. But, in two words: No sale.

Nonetheless, TechCrunch, the popular tech blog that has been gift-wrapping up Bebo, has upgraded the unconfirmed rumor it floated about Bebo’s sale last week. At the time, it estimated the veracity of that rumor at 50%, but has now upgraded it to claiming “this is about as strong a rumor as they come.”

Unfortunately, most rumors are typically about as strong as a twig to begin with, so that’s not saying much. And this one snaps easily with only a little bit of reporting.

Even more fragile is TechCrunch’s assertion that Google is the acquirer–well, to be fair, its post characterizes it as a bet–because of some theory of fitting in with Google’s not-so-hot social-networking effort, Orkut.

Actually, Google has been approached about investing in Bebo and even to look at it as an acquisition, which is an event that happens about 3,546 times a day at Google by all sorts of companies. But Google is, at this point, uninterested in buying Bebo.

(And just FYI, Orkut is not exactly a favorite child at the Googleplex, so spending $1 billion as a gift to it seems a bit of a stretch).

TechCrunch also seemed to imply a nefarious plot in its post: “What’s clear is that Bebo, which is the second-largest social network in the U.K. behind Facebook, either signed a deal, or is sending out false messages that they’ve been or are about to be acquired (which is unlikely given Allen & Co.’s involvement). If misinformation is the goal, we’ve bought it hook, line and sinker.”

Well, we’re not hearing voices and we are not a fish, but here is what is true, based on reporting today and our previous post on the Bebo rumors last week:

Bebo is in the midst of raising a large round of funding with Allen & Co. that values the company at upward of $1 billion. In the course of that, it has prepared a book of information about itself.

Some companies–News Corp., Yahoo, Microsoft, but NOT Google–have expressed interest in looking at the company as a whole, although they are all potential investors too.

The very innovative social-networking company certainly could be sold and sold quickly, and it has long been interested in that option, but is not averse to going it alone. But Bebo, which held a board meeting today, has not been sold and remains independent.

If the company did go in this direction, any good guesser could assume News Corp., Yahoo and Microsoft are the best bets (again, Google would be a long shot). I suppose CBS and Viacom could also be included, but that’s a lot for Sumner Redstone, owner of both companies, to fork over.

And, in any case, Yahoo, Microsoft and News Corp. are probably now too embroiled in the wrangling over the fate of Yahoo to focus on Bebo. To recap, Microsoft made a $31-per-share unsolicited bid for Yahoo. Yahoo rejected it. Microsoft vowed to fight on.

News Corp., owner of Dow Jones and this site, which said it was not likely to enter the fray last week, appears to have changed its tune this week. It is reportedly formulating what sounds like a devilishly complex deal related to its MySpace property that seems most likely to drive Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer into a rage (not a long drive!).

While Bebo’s fate remains the same for now, here’s something I can upgrade into a near certainty: Yahoo is going to get sold.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.