Yahoo has been very often in the headlines these days, much to its chagrin. But the company is now setting out to make news of its own, describing an array of deals in the online advertising realm.

The deals are mostly small ones, but the all-at-once grouping suggests that Yahoo is trying to shape its own image after months of being described as takeover bait. The announcement Wednesday came a day after the investor Carl Icahn proposed that Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, be removed over the way he handled Microsoft’s bid for the company.

Despite Yahoo’s efforts to spread the news of its deals — one with Wal-Mart Stores, one with CBS and another with the advertising agency Havas Digital — people who follow the company seemed more interested in the status of Yahoo’s talks with Microsoft. In discussing the arrangements at an advertising conference Wednesday morning, the president of Yahoo, Susan Decker, said that talks with Microsoft were “ongoing,” and that seemed to be the tidbit people seized on.

In a meeting with reporters over lunch, Decker was asked to clarify what she meant by “ongoing.” “Just that,” she said. “Microsoft said they’re talking with us about partnerships, and we are.”

Of the Yahoo deals, one, perhaps the most prominent, was a pact to sell display advertisements on Walmart.com. Although another agency also sells these ads, Yahoo will be the only portal that is allowed to resell the inventory.

Yahoo will be able to use consumers’ browsing and purchase histories on Walmart.com to select ads for individuals, said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo publisher network. For instance, if a Walmart.com visitor puts a digital camera in the shopping cart but does not buy it, Yahoo could serve a Nikon ad when the visitor returns to Walmart.com, or when…