Home Depot Supply deal: succeed?

--This will be a test of wills between Wall Street and private-equity firms. In recent years, the buyout shops have used their clout to extract sweeter financing terms from the banks. These terms also made it harder for the banks to back out of their financing commitments, no matter how much market conditions deteriorated. Until recently, the banks were happy to oblige, given the lucrative fees that flowed from the buyout groups. --Pinched by the current credit crisis, the banks are toughening their stance against the private-equity firms. With a backlog of some $300 billion of U.S. private-equity deals still to be funded, the banks are now facing significant writedowns on their balance sheets. That's why they are weighing how to extract themselves from as many buyout transactions as possible. --Home Depot was Thursday night close to accepting about $1.2 billion less for the sale of its wholesale distribution business to three private-equity firms, people familiar with the matter said. ($10.2 bil deal - 1.2)