Wall Street has its own brand of breaking up. There may not be 50 ways but there are at least two -- the easy way and the hard way. According to the New York Times, KKR and The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) are splitting with Harman International (NYSE: HAR) the easy way while J.C . Flowers is taking the hard route to killing its deal with SLM Corp (NYSE: SLM).

The easy way, in the Harman case, is for the buyers to buy $400 million worth of Harman bonds instead of paying $8 billion to own the company. Under the new agreement, the buyout deal struck in April will be dissolved, with no litigation or payment of the $225 million termination fee. Instead, KKR and Goldman will buy bonds that can be exchanged for Harman shares at $104, below the $120-a-share price of the original offer -- but much higher than its current $85.87.

Harman gets some cash and saves face while KKR and Goldman get out of investing in a cratering company -- its earnings of 50 cents a share for the most recent quarter are expected to be less than half of the $1.02 analysts had forecast.

This will begin to seem like a broken record now.

KKR and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) are close to either renegotiating or walking away from a deal to buy Harman International (NYSE: HAR), the big audio components company, according to the Wall Street Journal because of "a credit crunch and lackluster financial results from Harman."

Most of the buyout deals have clauses that say that if a company's fortunes go through a "material change" that buyers can back out. But, operating income at Harman in the June quarter was more than $81 million on revenue of $911 million. Not as good as some quarters in the past, but hardly a disaster.

The buyout does have a $225 million break-up fee, but Harman's board is likely to insist that KKR and Goldman stay in the deal The stock trades at about $112 a share which is well below the $125 offer. Harman traded under $100 before the offer to take the company private was made.

Although KKR and Goldman could have their reputations harmed by walking away from a deal, they may feel that it is better to face this kind of setback than to loose billions of dollars on a company that they no longer believe can cover the debt that a buyout would create. But, Harman's board and management are unlikely to be satisfied with that explanation. It is not much to take to their shareholders.

If the transaction falls apart, the odds are very high that Harman will take the two big financial firms to court. And, it may be only the first case among many brought on by a tough credit environment where risk is no longer popular.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 247wallst.com.