Mid-market private equity firm Thoma Bravo recently closed its ninth fund with $822.5 million in capital commitments. The fund, which the firm said was oversubscribed, focuses on buyouts in the software, business and financial services and education industries. “We are pleased to have exceeded our fund-raising goal despite a challenging environment,” Carl Thoma, one of the firm’s four managing directors, said in a statement. We've got five more questions for him: Q: How is the downturn affecting your firm? A: We’re seeing more opportunities now than we saw six months ago. From the buy side the opportunities are better than what we’ve seen. Public valuations have gotten so low there are going to be a lot of opportunities to take private. Stocks that were $15 are now $5 but their earnings are still going up. Consumer space is the one that everyone is trying to decide if you jump into that space yet or not, since earnings there are really coming down.