A lot rides on the word of a private equity firm, and that includes going through with deals to which they commit. But as the credit crunch is now revealing, a deal is not a deal until it’s a deal. Deal Journal looked at the dead-deal records of the Top 10 buyout firms listed on Fortune’s 2007 Private Equity Power List. Of the 10, half have had deals fall apart over the last 18 months. That leaves TPG, Warburg Pincus, Apollo Advisors, T.H. Lee and Providence Equity Partners as the ones to avoid busted transactions.

Deal Journal now brings you the list of the fallen, courtesy of data from Churchill Capital USA and Dealogic.

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Bain Capital has the proposed $2.1 billion buyout of 3Com Corp., which was announced in September 2007 and killed this month because of regulatory issues. Bain has also proposed to buy Clear Channel Communications, which is on the ropes. Bain has closed deals for American Standard, Guitar Center, and OSI Restaurant Partners.

Blackstone Group’s $1.8 billion offer for PHH Corp. died after financing could not be found. Blackstone’s proposed acquisition of Alliance Data Systems is still hanging in the balance. The firm has closed deals including Hilton Hotels, Biomet, Freescale Semiconductor.

The Carlyle Group’s $6.6 billion deal for Advanced Semiconductor, in which the parties failed to agree on price after a preliminary commitment. Carlyle’s closed deals include Manor Care, HD Supply, and Allison Transmission.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. has only one failed deal to its credit (or debit): the $7.9 billion Harman deal. The firm did, however, close on a remarkable number of deals even amid the credit crunch, including TXU Corp. Biomet, First Data, Laureate Education, Dollar General, U.S. Foodservice, Alliance Boots, and a few others.

Cerberus Capital Management has the distinction of having all three of its recent terminated offers fall through because of credit market conditions. That includes the $6.2 billion offer for United Rentals, which went to court, as well as a $970 million play for Option One Mortgage, which was abandoned due to changes in the mortgage market, and the $8.6 billion offer for Affiliated Computer Services Ltd., dropped in part because of credit market conditions. Cerberus has closed deals for Tower Automotive and Chrysler.

The firm that came close:
Providence Equity Partners, which was buying television stations from Clear Channel, successfully sued its banks in order to force them to finance the deal.

Don’t forget these two that lie outside the Top 10:
J.C. Flowers has only one defunct deal but it’s a doozy: the $25.57 billion offer for SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae. Flowers’ $1.8 billion offer for a stake in Shinsei Bank is still pending.

Goldman Sachs, along with KKR, made a $7.9 billion offer for Harman International, for which the buyout firms settled after arguing that they could take advantage of the material adverse change clause. Goldman’s closed deals include offers for Alltel, TXU, Dollar General and Biomet.