When the Blackstone Group last week closed on the largest-ever private equity fund at $15.6 billion, it made one thing very clear: There is plenty of cash around to keep the current M&A feast going well into the future.

Private equity firms have as much as $770 billion globally to invest and over the past six months have been gobbling up companies at a breakneck pace, contributing an increasingly large share of overall M&A volume, anywhere from 15% to 30%, depending who does the counting. Corporate strategic buyers, flush with cash and equity, have had a huge appetite . . .

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