New Mountain, after a seven year hold, will exit Deltek.

On conference panels, in interviews, through surveys, limited partners routinely telegraph the notion that they prefer the small and mid-sized to the mega. But the U.S. buyout fundraising numbers this year tell a different story.

Trending on peHUB this week: Splunk, Infoblox, Proofpoint, Sequoia Capital, Sevin Rosen, Mohr Davidow, Thrivent, Spectrum Equity, SurveyMonkey, New Mountain Capital, UTIMCO, Union Square Ventures, True Ventures, King.com

New Mountain makes its biggest bet ever on AmWINS

New Mountain Capital is backing Charlotte, N.C -headquartered AmWINS Group, a global distributor of insurance products and services in a growth-oriented recapitalization valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Mid-market private equity firm Parthenon Capital Partners is selling its stake in the business. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed. PRESS RELEASE AmWINS Group, Inc. (“AmWINS”), [...]

SNL Financial is to acquire Highline Data from Summit Business Media. The acquisition will boost SNL’s position as a leading US insurance financial information provider across the property & casualty, health and life insurance sectors.

The management of Iron Bow Technologies LLC has acquired a controlling interest in the company from previous owner New Mountain Capital, the company announced Wednesday. New Mountain and other selling shareholders will collectively retain a minority interest in the company. Terms of the deal were not released. Iron Bow has revenues of approximately $800 million.

Time to catch up on the blog posts and news items that your peers found most interesting on peHUB this week. Following are the top 10 posts that garnered the most pageviews from regular readers from July 25 to July 29. (We did a separate list for the week’s most popular slideshows.) This week’s hot topics include David Lowe leaving the San Francisco buyout shop he co-founded; Elevation’s Roger McNamee announcing plans to get into seed investing; the sale of fried chicken restaurant Bojangles’; and strong interest among buyout shops to buy brokerage Morgan Keegan.
1. Co-Founder Has Left San Fran Firm, by Bernard Vaughan
2. McNamee Promises to Make Seed Investments from Buyout Shop Elevation Partners (subscribers only), by Mark Boslet
3. The Mystery of Bojangles’s New York Store Is Solved, by Luisa Beltran
4. Blackstone, Carlyle Among Bidders for Morgan Keegan, by Paritosh Bansal and Megan Davies, Reuters
5. Dealtalk: Buyout Firms Target Unloved Corporate Divisions, by Simon Meads, Reuters

New York-based private equity firm New Mountain Capital has acquired a majority stake in SNL Financial, a Charlottesville, Va.-based provider of sector-focused information services on the banking, financial services, insurance, real estate, energy, and media industries. Terms of the deal were not released.

New Mountain Capital has completed its majority investment in SymphonyIRI Group Inc., the company announced Thursday. Terms of the investment were not released. SymphonyIRI Group, formerly named Information Resources, provides software for market measurement and software and services designed to provide growth opportunities in marketing, sales, shopper marketing and category management. Jefferies & Company and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisors to SymphonyIRI.