It wasn’t just Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer meeting in New York last week.

According to several sources close to the situation, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes rounded out the trio of chit-chatting execs, presumably gathered to discuss possible partnerships and other deals between and amongst the companies whose digital assets are among the largest on the Web.

Although the possibilities are numerous, exactly what Bostock, Ballmer and Bewkes–let’s call them the Busy B’s from here on out–were cooking up is unclear.

But for Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT) and Time Warner (TWX), which owns the AOL online service, it is a meal that is probably long past due.

That’s especially true given the struggles each has had with his online assets of late.

Some sort of alliance between the threesome could be a way each could solve those problems and more importantly, create a Web counterweight to the growing power of Google (GOOG).

Last week, on the heels of Carol Bartz’s appointment as new Yahoo CEO, BoomTown wrote a post noting that Microsoft was ready to deal in its long-sought-after effort to strike a search deal with Yahoo.

Last year, the software giant launched a takeover battle for Yahoo, which was resisted and ultimately abandoned. But Microsoft never lost interest in doing an outright deal to buy Yahoo’s search assets or create a significant partnership around search.

Yahoo has been long been lukewarm to such an idea, first rejecting Microsoft outright in favor of a deal with Google.

Since its Google deal collapsed over regulatory concerns, Yahoo has still dragged its feet about the notion, with its board divided over the right course of action.

And, while Bartz told Yahoo employees last week that her “gut” did not favor the deal, most saw that more as a negotiating ploy than a signal that Yahoo was not at least somewhat interested.

It has to be, given that many of its investors and also Wall Street have been eager for Yahoo to make such an alliance.

Therefore, the sighting of Ballmer and Bostock at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan together, first reported by Valleywag late last week, was a sign that relations between Yahoo and Microsoft were improving.

(The Ballmer/Bostock confab was also later confirmed by the New York Times.)

But sources at all the companies have said Bewkes was also meeting with the pair, which makes it clearer than ever that a much bigger and more complex game might be afoot.

It’s kind of inevitable too, given that this group has done more back and forth blabbing and bickering than Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson on “American Idol.”

That’s because Yahoo and AOL have also been involved in serious, but painfully prolonged, discussions to merge, talks that were tabled once Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said in November that he was stepping down.

In addition, Microsoft has been interested in eventually renewing its bid for AOL’s search business, which is now run by Google. Microsoft lost out to Google the last time the contract was up.

It recently paid a small king’s ransom to become the key search partner of both Dell (DELL) and Verizon Wireless (VZ), distribution deals that have become one of Microsoft’s favored tactics to take some market share away from Google.

Microsoft even hired a well-known Yahoo search techie, Qi Lu, to head its digital efforts, mostly to turbocharge its search business.

But given that Google’s search share is over 70 percent now, which yields it a lion’s share of the search ad dollars, none of this has been enough for Microsoft to get true traction in the search game.

That’s why some sort of union with Yahoo is probably critical for Microsoft, since this would get it past the 20 percent share mark.

As for Bewkes, he has been mightily trying to unload AOL, which has had a long and painful history with Time Warner.

So it’s clear the trio had a lot to talk about.

And I hope they get creative this time, rather than just rehashing the same old ideas that have still not been consummated.

Here’s my suggestion, which is a bit nuts, to be sure, although variations of it have previously been considered by all the companies:

Instead of Yahoo doing the acquisition, which it can ill afford with its depressed stock price, Microsoft buys AOL for $4 billion to $5 billion.

It then quickly spins AOL’s content, advertising and communication assets into Yahoo, nabbing the search business, throws in some cash as an investment and perhaps even its MSN assets. Microsoft gets a large stake in the newco.

Time Warner gets the cash from the AOL sale and perhaps even a stake in the newco, along with perhaps striking some kind of interesting online deal for the rest of its copious media assets.

And Yahoo gets to own massive assets in content, communications and premium advertising on the Web. While it would lose search, Yahoo would also get a pile of money, along with enough key search data from Microsoft that it would drown in it.

And, most importantly, Yahoo could focus on what it does best rather than get squeezed in a search arms race between Google and Microsoft.

And if the meeting among Bostock, Ballmer and Bewkes was only another chapter of the endless and unsuccessful talks that have so far lead exactly nowhere?

Well then, the three will eventually look more like the Three Stooges than anything else.

BoomTown loves a good memo and here’s one that two of Microsoft’s top online execs, Yusuf Mehdi and Satya Nadella sent out about the deal the tech giant signed with Dell (DELL) and Verizon (VZ) to distribute its search and other products.

Microsoft (MSFT) is opening its fat wallet to do such a deal and try to best archrival Google (GOOG). It was announced last night at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote kickoff for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Here’s the memo:

From: Yusuf Mehdi
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 6:29 PM
To: OSD R&D FTE World Wide; Online Audience Business Group FTE; APSP FTE–Adv & Pub Solutions Platform
Cc: Yusuf Mehdi; Satya Nadella; Qi Lu
Subject: Announcing Dell and Verizon Strategic Partnerships!

Satya and Yusuf

In an article in The Wall Street Journal today comes the news that “President- elect Barack Obama’s call to improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure has cable and phone company lobbyists maneuvering to get a leg up.”

To BoomTown, this is akin to Ebenezer Scrooge making his overnight transformation, except without any soul, sincerity or true intent to actually care about the consumer.

God help us, everyone.

Because if these same companies had been around during, say, the critical rollout of the federal highway system or universal telephone access, we’d all be tooling down dirt roads and talking via tin cans.

Still, a whiff of interest from a new administration–a move that is much too long in coming, due to a complete lack of leadership by the Feds, who have egregiously ignored exactly how important broadband ubiquity is to the U.S. economy–and we are apparently off to the races.

It’s high time, given, as the Journal article points out, “the U.S. has slipped to 15th from fourth place since 2001 in broadband penetration, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.”

We are tops in costs of these services, though!

Ouch.

Of course, the cable and phone giants are pushing for the government to pay for a lot of it–as they reap big bucks from high-penetration areas and try to get public dollars to pay for areas that have no broadband access.

As usual, the government will be the piggy bank–as it should have done much earlier–doling out tax credits and incentives and backing bonds, grants and vouchers.

Still, said the Journal, the cable and phone giants are bickering over the definition of speed, even as they continue to try to block public broadband projects and public-interest groups try to force the government to impose conditions on private companies.

So, while a new intent by the new leadership in Washington is a good thing, a little bah-humbug on the part of consumers is probably still in order.

Speaking of that, here are two videos of highlights of an interview Walt Mossberg and I did with outgoing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, along with Verizon Wireless head Lowell McAdam, about these very issues at last May’s D: All Things Digital conference.

Here are the videos:

Part 1

Part 2

Here is an amazing chart from a story in The Wall Street Journal recently about mobile phone search preferences, which says a whole lot about why Microsoft (MSFT) is so eager to hand a pile of money over to Verizon Wireless (VZ) to become the default search on its many devices.

Well, as in the PC market and on social-networking sites, because of–wait for it–Google (GOOG), of course.

According to another Journal story recently:

“Under the terms now being considered, Microsoft would share revenue with Verizon from ads shown in response to cellphone Web searches, with guaranteed payments to the carrier of approximately $550 million to $650 million over five years, or roughly twice what Google offered, these people said.”

Why so much of a premium, especially since the widgetization of smartphones makes it easier for all players to compete?

The chart tells the tale:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview Walt Mossberg and I did with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and Verizon Wireless (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam jointly. We paired the two together to talk about big issues facing the wireless industry, including low broadband speeds and high prices.

The video of the interview is in three parts, all of which I have posted this week.

In this third part, Martin talks about net neutrality and the big political issues for technology, while McAdam talks about competition with AT&T and other rivals, and then both answer questions from the audience about early termination fees, getting dropped call data, eliminating subsidies and platform convergence.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview Walt Mossberg and I did with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and Verizon Wireless (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam jointly. We paired the two together to talk about big issues facing the wireless industry, including low broadband speeds and high prices.

The video of the interview is in three parts, all of which I will post this week.

In this second part, McAdam talks about the wireless giant’s open network initiatives and the impact of aggressive efforts by Google (GOOG) in the space, termination fees and subsidy issues, while Martin discusses the key issues the FCC will be facing, including the transition of the broadcast industry from analog to digital and network neutrality.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s an interview Walt Mossberg and I did with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and Verizon Wireless (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam jointly. We paired the two together to talk about big issues facing the wireless industry, including low broadband speeds and high prices.

The video of the interview is in three parts, all of which I will post this week.

In this first part, Martin talks about why broadband speed is so slow and prices are so high (the U.S. apparently has density issues!), the difficulty of getting consensus in Washington, D.C. and more open wireless networks, while McAdams discusses the challenges with local governments.

The annual gathering of tech and media luminaries was created and is run by my partner Walt Mossberg and me.

D6 tech and media speakers include: Microsoft Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT); News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch; Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX); Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Michael Dell of Dell Computer (DELL); IAC’s (IACI) Barry Diller; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE); and TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers.

Also: Tom Glocer of Thomson Reuters (TRI); Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ); Activision’s (ATVI) Robert Kotick; and former Microsoft tech guru Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures.

Just recently, we added Jerry Yang, CEO and co-founder of Yahoo (YHOO), and now he is being joined onstage at the conference by Yahoo President Sue Decker (pictured here in a lovely Wall Street Journal dot-drawing).

The pairing should make for a lively session, given all the heat around Yahoo of late, largely related to the scuttled attempt by Microsoft to buy the company.

What would you like to know about that and anything else about Yahoo?

As it so happens, you can ask!

While the conference is sold out, you can submit questions that you would like answered to Yang and Decker or any of the speakers via text or video. Walt and I will pick the best ones and let loose.

Ask early and often here!

In addition, the whole conference will be online at AllThingsD during the conference, via live blogs and reports of breaking news (and there will be breaking news, as there always is), along with video highlights.

And videos of all the interviews will be posted soon after it is over.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT). News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch. Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX). Yahoo’s (YHOO) Jerry Yang.

All of them engaged in roiling Internet deal-making of late and all of them in just three weeks on the same stage–but not, thankfully, at the same time, or we’d need a professional negotiator–at the 6th D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

The annual gathering of tech and media luminaries was created and is run by my amazing partner Walt Mossberg and me (see us here at D5) and will take place May 27 to 29.

The conference, as we describe it on our Web site, is “unlike any other executive conference.” What we mean by that is that we try to determine the next direction of the digital revolution via unscripted and informal, but pointed, conversations about the impact of digital technology with industry leaders.

In other words, Walt and I needling at the major players of the digital sector, until they give up the good stuff.

The other digital and media leaders coming? That would be: Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Michael Dell of Dell Computer (DELL); IAC’s (IACI) Barry Diller; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE); and TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers.

Also: Tom Glocer of Thomson Reuters (TRI); Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ); Activision’s (ATVI) Robert Kotick; and former Microsoft tech guru and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures.

To say our timing is impeccably planned would be undeserved–we had no idea so much news related to all these companies and their leaders would break out, from the tough economy to takeover battles to court face-offs to mergers to trying to create a whole new way of reading.

Also, there will be some–as yet under wraps–amazing demos onstage too.

While the analog conference has been sold out for many months, the action will be on the AllThingsD.com site throughout the conference with round-the-clock live blogging by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski, as well as video highlights from stage.

In addition, we’ll be pointing all over the Web to important tech and media news that breaks at D6.

And we will also stream the entire conference in the weeks after the conference takes place, so ATD’s audience can experience the whole thing, even if they cannot all attend.

But anyone’s questions can be there, though–this year, you can submit questions to any of the speakers via text or video that you would like answered. Walt and I will pick the best ones and let loose. Ask early and often here!

Walt and I are very excited for D6, even after last year, when we brought together industry legends Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, for an historic joint interview.

At the time, Walt and I joked that we would not be able to top that amazing event (the video of the entire interview is below).

That interview was nearly unbeatable, but we also think that with the top-level interviewees we have assembled for D6, that it is game on.

Until then, here’s the Gates/Jobs video from D5: