Slideshow: The Year's Top Private Equity Deals

Last week, we discovered which private equity firm was the biggest dealmaker. Now it's time for the largest PE deals of the year. Global PE-backed M&A totaled $267 billion so far in 2012, a 12% drop from 2011, according to preliminary data from Thomson Reuters. Private equity-backed mergers targeting the U.S. reached roughly $137 billion year-to-date, a 7% decline from 2011.

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