Yahoo and Microsoft aren’t about to let their high-profile takeover battle get in the way of other, smaller deals. Microsoft announced a deal to buy mobile software company Danger on Monday for an undisclosed sum, and Yahoo said on Tuesday it has acquired video hosting firm Maven Networks for $160 million.

The rationale behind Microsoft’s unsolicited bid for Yahoo — to compete more effectively against Google — can be seen in both deals.

Microsoft said the Danger acquisition was crucial to its success to win consumers over to its brand of mobile Internet, at a time when Google is preparing to launch its mobile software platform, Android. Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, who is now running Android for Google.

Similarly Maven, which hosts and syndicates ads and video for media companies, could help Yahoo convince those companies to use its own platform rather than build their own or support rivals Google and Microsoft.

PE Hub’s Dan Primack adds more about the Yahoo-Maven deal:

Yahoo originally signed its letter of intent for Maven last November, and news first leaked out two weeks ago via blogs TechCrunch and NewTeeVee. Less than 24 hours later, however, Microsoft unveiled its hostile takeover attempt for Yahoo, and speculation ran rampant that the Maven deal was stalled. Apologies for lending my voice to that, as I’m now told that February 11 was always the close date, and it finished up as scheduled.

This sale is a big win for Maven’s venture capital backers - General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners and Prism VentureWorks — which had invested around $24 million. The most recent round was a $12 million Series C round in mid-2006, at a pre-money valuation of just $30 million. It’s particularly good for GC, which originally invested in 2003 at a $7.5 million pre-money. And GC could really use it, because it’s also pumped a ton of money into Maven competitor Brightcove - including a recent round at around a $210 million post.