Private Equity Loses Fund Commitments as Tony James Woos Oregon

A year after the financial crisis subsided, the $2.5 trillion private-equity industry is finding the easy money may be gone.

Managers saddled with $1.6 trillion in buyouts made during a three-year boom have marked at least 6 of the era’s 10 biggest deals at or below cost, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About $470 billion sits idle, according to London-based researcher Preqin Ltd. Announced purchases so far this year total less than a fifth of their volume at the peak in 2007.