The private equity industry is in the midst of its most prolific year ever, with buyout firms striking deals and spending cash like never before.

The surge in spending has been driven in no small part by mega-deals, like the $30 billion acquisition of Medline Industries that a trio of private equity heavyweights lined up in June. But it has also been fueled by a steady stream of smaller takeovers—“smaller,” in this case, meaning hundreds of millions of dollars instead of billions. READ MORE