In the first half of the year, we could all be forgiven for harboring a small degree of optimism. If you look at the global M&A market according to analysis undertaken for the first half of the year by mergermarket, there were announced a total of 5,062 deals worth around $883 billion, an increase of around 14% compared to the same period in 2009. That said we’ve also had the ever-present threat of double dip recession, governmental promises of austerity and the problems surrounding sovereign debt in Europe. So the big question is what does the next twelve months hold for the global M&A market?

Last month, we released the IntraLinks 2010 Q2 Deal Flow Indicator (DFI). The DFI is based on the volume of M&A deals IntraLinks was proposed for use on by deal teams over the course of the quarter. Given the high number of potential deals we’re pursuing at any one time as a leading virtual data room and M&A solution, the DFI offers a unique perspective on overall M&A market trends.

So what’s happening in the deal market? The DFI reports significant increases in the number of deals happening in Q2 2010, both vs. Q1 of this year, as well as over Q2 in 2009. While the DFI showed a mild uptick in Q1 2010 over Q4 2009, we saw a significant jump in March, a trend which continued into Q2.

With research and development costs rising and discovery pipelines struggling, life sciences organizations are always looking for opportunities to increase revenue, while reducing overall costs, improving operational efficiencies and minimizing risks.

The recent conference, INTERPHEX Japan 2010, Asia’s largest pharmaceutical event, at Japan’s biggest exhibition center, Tokyo Big Sight, therefore provided an excellent opportunity for life sciences professionals to network for three days to source products, services and capabilities that drive scientific and process innovation for the life sciences industry. In its 23rd year, and organised by Reed Exhibitions, INTERPHEX Japan proved a huge success, attracting a record number of 1,564 exhibitors and 66,750 industry professionals from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetics R&D and manufacturing industries.

After spending several weeks on the road meeting with potential investors, I am pleased to announce that IntraLinks is now a publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange — trading under the ticker symbol “IL”. We are excited and proud to be associated with the New York Stock Exchange. We have achieved an important milestone for IntraLinks, as well as for all the investors and other stakeholders who have placed their trust in our company’s success.

By becoming a public company, we have now increased our financial resources and flexibility, enabling us to grow our business and further establish IntraLinks as a leading provider of SaaS-based solutions for collaboration between businesses. While the past few months have inevitably presented their challenges, the process of “going public” has allowed us to truly articulate and reinforce our corporate vision. It’s been a rewarding experience both personally and professionally.

Last year, I wrote about the IntraLinks vision for using enhanced two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect data in a SaaS-based environment. What I covered in that blog was used as a basis for designing a customized 2FA (or strong authentication) framework for the IntraLinks platform. The most important feature of the framework is the adaptability it offers to users for their security policy requirements. The idea is that people who own the data are more likely to understand its sensitivity and level of protection required than the people who design systems. On the other hand, system designers have the necessary technical skills to implement robust protection mechanisms. Our framework allows for the optimal ‘separation of duties’ — we implement the best of breed 2FA mechanisms, and our users apply those where and when they think it makes sense.