The race is on.

It’s just been a few months since the near collapse and rescue of Bear Stearns, and a book promising an insider’s view of those fateful weeks in March is already being flogged. 

It certainly won’t be the last. Days after the brokerage’s implosion, Bertelsmann AG’s Doubleday imprint announced a book project of its own, to be authored by William Cohan, who also wrote the insiders yarn about Lazard “The Last Tycoons.” But that book reportedly won’t come out until 2009.

That will leave the coast clear for now for “Bear-Trap”, by an anonymous senior executive at one of Bear Stearns’ derivatives groups and CMG Holdings’ Andrew Spencer, which will be out in stores Sept. 22. (It can be pre-ordered on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.)

CMG Holdings, a marketing firm, is looking further ahead, planning to get networks to bid for the electronic rights to the book next month.  

“Bear Trap is the most powerful Wall Street story since the collapse of Drexel, and it has the added drama of the complexities and politics of the Federal Reserve Bank’s involvement,” Alan Morell, CEO of Creative Management Group Agency, said in a statement. “This is tailor-made for a television true-drama story.”

In the book, the Bear Stearns executive tells the tale of what happened at the storied Wall Street bank, leading to its weekend rescue by rival JPMorgan Chase, including to the roles played by the U.S. Treasury and the Fed as well as foreign demand for U.S. capital,  according to the statement.

Looking for a taste of it?

The promotional website highlights what one assumes must be the defining quote (it’s in large, red letters on a black background): “You just can’t make this sh** up.”

That’s probably true. But you can surely try profit from it.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Tech titan Bill Gates appears to be making the transition from head of the biggest software company in the world to a man comfortable taking out the trash. His investment company, BGI, which owns 2.3 percent of Waste Management, is telling the company its unsolicited $6.2 billion bid for Republic Services is ill-advised and that it should walk away. While his investment vehicles have stakes in dozens of companies, they have kept low profiles over the years and Gates has not traditionally been known as an activist investor. But BGI didn’t mince words in its letter to Waste Management’s CEO and board, disclosed on Thursday. “We can only assume your ill-timed and poorly conceived pursuit of Republic is designed to disrupt what you perceive as a competitive threat to your position in the market,” wrote BGI. “An acquisition of Republic will most certainly burden the company with excessive debt, distract your management, result in significant regulatory burdens, and thereby reduce shareholder value,” it said.

Yahoo’s annual investor meeting today will be a magnet for discontent over the company’s failure to reach a merger deal with Microsoft and complaints about the company’s past performance. But any real action to reshape Yahoo’s course is likely to take place only after the meeting, once activist investor Carl Icahn and two outside nominees join an expanded 11-member board as part of a deal with the company to avoid a proxy battle. Far from a showdown over control of Yahoo, the annual meeting has the makings of a noisy media circus where the issue of whether Yahoo should remain independent or not competes with older protests over executive pay and human rights policies. For while the exercise of shareholder democracy will allow investors small and large to vent over what might have been, the outraged speeches are likely to have only symbolic effects since Icahn withdrew his overt challenge to Yahoo’s board. “I am sure that Yahoo management will take a verbal beating,” Jim Friedland, an analyst Cowen & Co, said. “I just don’t think that the annual meeting is where the debate over Yahoo strategy is going to take place.” In a blog post on Thursday, Icahn downplayed the importance of the event, saying he plans to skip the meeting himself.

Spanish solar power company Fotowatio said that General Electric’s Energy Financial Services unit had bought 32 percent of the company for 150 million euros ($233.5 million). Grupo Corporativo Landon — a holding company for the Gallardo family, which owns Barcelona-based pharmaceutical group Almirall — also bought a 17.5 percent stake for 75 million euros, the company added in a statement. Fotowatio said that together with its new partners, it had earmarked 2.5 billion euros to invest by 2012 in photovoltaic and thermosolar plants in Spain, Italy, the United States, and other countries. Currently, the company has four installations, with a total installed capacity of 60 megawatts, which it plans to expand to 800 MW by 2012. Photovoltaic (PV) power has boomed in recent years in Spain due to generous government subsidies, but these will be slashed next year.

Other deals of the day:

* French power giant EDF walked away from a 12 billion pound ($23.8 billion) deal to buy British Energy early on Friday in a dramatic U-turn that could delay Britain’s plans to relaunch its nuclear program.

* Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer, has agreed to sell its Castorama Italy business to French DIY firm Groupe Adeo for 560 million euros ($871.9 million) in cash.

* Spanish bank Banco Sabadell said its fully owned BIDSA unit has agreed to acquire 4.9 percent of broadcaster Antena 3 from Grupo Rayet for about 85 million euros ($132.3 million).

* French bank BNP Paribas will buy a stake in Anglo-Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort, and merge it with its Dutch and UK operations, creating a 10-billion-euro ($15.6 billion) asset manager.

* German investment group Arques Industries has agreed to buy an 80.2 percent stake in Siemens‘ cordless phone unit SHC, closing the chapter on Siemens’ telecoms business.

* Germany’s BMW agreed to sell 72.9 percent of its IT consultancy Cirquent to NTT Data of Japan for an undisclosed price, the luxury carmaker said.

Tech titan Bill Gates appears to be making the transition from head of the biggest software company in the world to a man comfortable taking out the trash. His investment company, BGI, which owns 2.3 percent of Waste Management, is telling the company its unsolicited $6.2 billion bid for Republic Services is ill-advised and that it should walk away. While his investment vehicles have stakes in dozens of companies, they have kept low profiles over the years and Gates has not traditionally been known as an activist investor. But BGI didn’t mince words in its letter to Waste Management’s CEO and board, disclosed on Thursday. “We can only assume your ill-timed and poorly conceived pursuit of Republic is designed to disrupt what you perceive as a competitive threat to your position in the market,” wrote BGI. “An acquisition of Republic will most certainly burden the company with excessive debt, distract your management, result in significant regulatory burdens, and thereby reduce shareholder value,” it said.

Yahoo’s annual investor meeting today will be a magnet for discontent over the company’s failure to reach a merger deal with Microsoft and complaints about the company’s past performance. But any real action to reshape Yahoo’s course is likely to take place only after the meeting, once activist investor Carl Icahn and two outside nominees join an expanded 11-member board as part of a deal with the company to avoid a proxy battle. Far from a showdown over control of Yahoo, the annual meeting has the makings of a noisy media circus where the issue of whether Yahoo should remain independent or not competes with older protests over executive pay and human rights policies. For while the exercise of shareholder democracy will allow investors small and large to vent over what might have been, the outraged speeches are likely to have only symbolic effects since Icahn withdrew his overt challenge to Yahoo’s board. “I am sure that Yahoo management will take a verbal beating,” Jim Friedland, an analyst Cowen & Co, said. “I just don’t think that the annual meeting is where the debate over Yahoo strategy is going to take place.” In a blog post on Thursday, Icahn downplayed the importance of the event, saying he plans to skip the meeting himself.

Spanish solar power company Fotowatio said that General Electric’s Energy Financial Services unit had bought 32 percent of the company for 150 million euros ($233.5 million). Grupo Corporativo Landon — a holding company for the Gallardo family, which owns Barcelona-based pharmaceutical group Almirall — also bought a 17.5 percent stake for 75 million euros, the company added in a statement. Fotowatio said that together with its new partners, it had earmarked 2.5 billion euros to invest by 2012 in photovoltaic and thermosolar plants in Spain, Italy, the United States, and other countries. Currently, the company has four installations, with a total installed capacity of 60 megawatts, which it plans to expand to 800 MW by 2012. Photovoltaic (PV) power has boomed in recent years in Spain due to generous government subsidies, but these will be slashed next year.

Other deals of the day:

* French power giant EDF walked away from a 12 billion pound ($23.8 billion) deal to buy British Energy early on Friday in a dramatic U-turn that could delay Britain’s plans to relaunch its nuclear program.

* Kingfisher, Europe’s biggest home improvements retailer, has agreed to sell its Castorama Italy business to French DIY firm Groupe Adeo for 560 million euros ($871.9 million) in cash.

* Spanish bank Banco Sabadell said its fully owned BIDSA unit has agreed to acquire 4.9 percent of broadcaster Antena 3 from Grupo Rayet for about 85 million euros ($132.3 million).

* French bank BNP Paribas will buy a stake in Anglo-Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort, and merge it with its Dutch and UK operations, creating a 10-billion-euro ($15.6 billion) asset manager.

* German investment group Arques Industries has agreed to buy an 80.2 percent stake in Siemens‘ cordless phone unit SHC, closing the chapter on Siemens’ telecoms business.

* Germany’s BMW agreed to sell 72.9 percent of its IT consultancy Cirquent to NTT Data of Japan for an undisclosed price, the luxury carmaker said.

The following is a timeline of key events leading up to Yahoo’s Aug. 1 annual meeting.

2006 January – Yahoo Inc begins to report a string of weak quarterly results, reflecting competitive missteps by the company, market share gains by rival Google Inc, changes in the online advertising landscape and weakening spending in some ad segments.

2006 – Microsoft Corp and Yahoo begin preliminary talks on various partnerships, including a merger.

2007 February – Yahoo, under the leadership of previous Chief Executive Terry Semel, tells Microsoft it is not the right time to discuss a takeover, as the Yahoo board sees great potential in its new advertising technology and by making internal organizational changes.

2007 June 12 – A strong minority of Yahoo shareholders challenges the company’s direction, as CEO Semel comes under fire. Nearly a third of votes cast at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting oppose some of Yahoo’s directors.

2007 June 18 – Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang takes over as chief executive as Semel steps aside. Semel remains Yahoo chairman.

2008
Jan. 31 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer makes a $44.6 billion, $31-per-share, cash-and-stock takeover offer to Yahoo’s board. Semel resigns as chairman and is replaced by Roy Bostock.

Feb. 1 – Microsoft makes the offer public. Its shares fall 6.6 percent to $30.45; Yahoo shares rise 48 percent to $28.38.

Feb. 11 – Yahoo rejects the Microsoft offer as too low.

Mid-February – Yahoo begins talks with Time Warner Inc on a deal to combine the media conglomerate’s AOL unit with Yahoo in exchange for Time Warner taking a stake in the merged company. MySpace owner News Corp and Yahoo also discuss a tie-up.

March 18 – Yahoo releases financial forecasts until 2010, in an effort to prove it is worth more than Microsoft bid.

March 28 – One of seven face-to-face meetings takes place between the “senior-most” executives of Microsoft and Yahoo to discuss the bid. Yahoo asks how Microsoft would handle regulatory issues, including antitrust concerns, in a merger.

April 4-7 – Microsoft reevaluates its bid for Yahoo because the Internet company may have lost value since the offer was first made. Microsoft sets a three-week deadline for Yahoo to reach a deal or possibly face a proxy fight. Yahoo again rejects Microsoft’s bid.

April 9 – Yahoo says it will test Google search ads on its site, which could be more lucrative than selling its own search ads. Talks between Yahoo and Time Warner/AOL heat up.

April 15 – At another meeting between between Yahoo and Microsoft executives and their financial advisers, Yahoo asks about Microsoft’s integration plans and Yahoo raises a list of “key non-price deal terms” it believes are critical.

May 3 – After several earlier meetings, Yang meets Ballmer in Seattle. Microsoft verbally raises its offer to $33/share, or $47.5 billion, from its original $31/share bid. Yahoo wants $37/share, or about $5 billion more. Late in the day, Ballmer calls off the talks.

May 15 – Carl Icahn proposes a full dissident board slate for election at Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting in July. Icahn says he now holds a 4.3 percent stake in Yahoo, including 9.9 million shares and 49 million call options. Yahoo Chairman Bostock replies to Icahn that “none of the alternatives we are considering would preclude us from entering into a transaction with Microsoft or any other party.”

May 18 – Microsoft says it has raised with Yahoo an “alternative” deal that would not involve the software maker buying all of the web company but says it could reconsider pursuing a full acquisition. Microsoft proposed buying Yahoo’s search business and as part of the deal Microsoft would buy a stake in what remains of the company.

June 6 – Icahn says Yahoo should offer to sell itself to Microsoft of $34.375 a share. Throughout June, the two sides exchange a series of letters in an acrimonious war of words.

June 12 – Yahoo announces search advertising deal with Google for up to 10 years, and says talks with Microsoft have ended. U.S. lawmakers promise to scrutinize the deal on antitrust concerns. The companies say they will wait up to three-and-a-half months to put the deal into effect.

June 13 – Microsoft says it had offered to pay $8 billion, or $35 a share, for a 16 percent equity stake in Yahoo, and $1 billion in up-front payments to acquire Yahoo’s search advertising assets.

June 26 – Icahn says in a proxy filing that if his slate is elected, it will seek to hire a “talented and experienced CEO” to replace Yang, eliminate a severance plan, and sell Yahoo to Microsoft for at least $33 a share.

July 7 – Microsoft says it is interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo, such as the purchase of all or part of the company, only if Yahoo elects a new board. Microsoft says it has concluded that it cannot reach an agreement with Yahoo’s current management.

July 21 – Yahoo reaches settlement with Icahn that will put the billionaire activist investor and two other nominees on an expanded 11-member board in August, defusing a proxy battle showdown and making an immediate deal with Microsoft less likely.

July 22 – Yahoo’s second-quarter net profit fell 19 percent but investors took heart that it did not change its outlook despite a weakening U.S. economy and the distraction of Microsoft’s failed takeover bid.

Aug. 1 – Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting.

Sources: Statements from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Icahn; Reuters stories and data.

Photos: Reuters, Yahoo and Microsoft company materials, Google Maps.

Compiled by Eric Auchard, Peter Henderson and Tiffany Wu.