Has turbulence in the debt-related financing markets given strategic buyers a leg up over their PE rivals? According to Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the answer is yes. The paper cites a handful of examples — the auctions of Virgin Media Inc. and Insight Communications Co., and the sale of Cadbury Schweppes plc's U.S. soft-drink business — where financing delays may have altered the course of transactions. The Deal's Lisa Gewirtz-Ward adds a few more to the list in her story "Debt world trauma: Trick talks."

Of course, strategics have always been the most active buyers. As Kenneth Klee reported back in January, PE firms may have sent valuations sky high with their ever-larger funds (around $215 billion in equity last year alone), but corporate buyers still accounted for more than 80% of deal activity in 2006. Still, when going head-to-head in auctions, financial buyers have had much success outbidding strategics, so any edge is a welcome one.

Whatever roadblock the unsettled financing markets have thrown up in front of PE firms, it's likely temporary. Meaning strategic and financial buyers will continue to run up against one another and the more corporates know about what to expect, the better. For more on that, check out the special report on private equity titled "The way they see it" in the current issue of Corporate Dealmaker. — Suzanne Stevens

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