Buyouts drive record fund-raising activity in 2006 – Boston Business Journal:

“Despite a mellowed climate for venture capital, private equity fund raising saw a record pace in 2006, with mezzanine and buyout fund raising enjoying a banner year.

“The last two years have been record breaking years in terms of fund raising,” said Alex Tan, private equity research manager for Thomson Financial, “so there’s a lot of money out there. But a lot of the money has been raised by the biggest players, and that’s what’s going to make it more interesting for 2007.”