Yahoo and Microsoft are poised to finally sign the definitive agreement that will govern the complex and far-reaching search and online advertising partnership they struck in late July, said sources close to the situation.

If all goes well, the various Microsoft and Yahoo execs–who have been ferreted away over the last weeks, busy dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s in the massive document–could even turn in the delayed deal homework to their bosses for signature by the end of the week.

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AOL will officially be spun off from Time Warner on Dec. 9, with trading to begin the next day.

Shareholders of record at 5 pm ET on Nov. 27 will get one share of AOL for every 11 shares of Time Warner on the day of the long-expected spinoff of the Internet service.

AOL will trade on the New York Stock Exchange as “AOL,” just like the old days. Unlike the old days: Time Warner has given the company an implied valuation of a little more than $3 billion.

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As BoomTown promised earlier today, here’s the first of many filings related to the Yahoo-Microsoft online search and advertising deal announced last week.

The 8-K filing was made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A couple highlights: No termination fee and a $50 million annual payment to Yahoo by Microsoft for three years, for unspecified “transition and implementation costs” beyond the agreement.

(Personally, I think it’s for extra Advil needed for the headaches engendered organizing this circus.)

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After all the investor hubbub over the oh-no-they-didn’t deal between Yahoo and Microsoft starts to die down a bit, the pair are now embarking on the path that is the only way toward proving the efficacy of them joining together.

That would be getting a variety of state, federal and international regulators to say yes to the wide-ranging online advertising and search arrangement they announced last week so they can start making it work.

According to sources at both companies, a variety of filings will be made this week, including one to the Securities and Exchange Commission that should provide more details of the partnership.

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Jim Bankoff–the well-regarded former AOL exec who runs an online sports news network called SB Nation–has nabbed $7 million in funding from investors, including Comcast Interactive Capital, said sources.

People familiar with the situation said SB Nation’s post-investment valuation, after this second round, will be $30 million and also include previous investors, such as Accel Partners and Allen & Co.

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Early this morning, Bloomberg reported that regulators are looking into Apple’s disclosures about the health–or lack thereof–of its iconic CEO Steve Jobs.

And while BoomTown has railed against the creepy obsession the media have had with Jobs’s health and the publishing of rumors and innuendos about it as fact without a whole lot of reporting, I hope it is true.

It is also entirely appropriate that the government agency charged with keeping an eye on public companies does investigate–at the very least, to get the story right.

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BoomTown is handing over the stage today to hyperactive entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who just weighed in on what Yahoo should do. Literally, his post yesterday on his Blog Maverick site is titled “What Yahoo Should Do,” and he lays waste to a lot of the conventional wisdom about the Internet portal’s fate. Cuban and Yahoo have a rocky history and, let’s just say, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is not a fan. Ironically, in the piece, Cuban seems to be a big fan of Yahoo, or–more precisely–of its potential.

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Let’s be clear on one thing: We won’t be getting any financial information out of the company about Facebook’s performance or the slate of its shareholders until it’s good and ready to hand it over.
That’s because, although it has been widely reported, the hot social network will not fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s [...]

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