Without a doubt, German Formula 1™ driver Sebastian Vettel ended this year’s Formula 1 racing season on a high note, winning his second title. Vettel went into his last race of the year with increased confidence, leaving many of the more experienced veteran drivers in his rear view mirror.

In my mind, Vettel’s performance is parallel to recent M&A activity in the Asia Pacific Region (APAC), which has outpaced more mature markets and has shown stronger sequential M&A growth than many regions globally, with a 44 percent increase from Q2 2011 to Q3 2011. The significant traction in deal activity that we observed this quarter in APAC is consistent with an overall flight to long-term growth prospects visible in the market.

I recently returned from Mexico where I presented at an event that was co-sponsored and co-hosted by IntraLinks and mergermarket. The purpose of the event was to discuss the importance of Mexico as an emerging participant in the global economy and the maturing M&A and corporate finance activity with more than 100 bankers, lawyers, corporate development professionals, and executives.

During the event, Miguel Messmacher, Mexico’s Chief Economist and Secretary of Treasury and Public Credit, discussed the increase in M&A deals and IPOs among the nation’s companies, and that the increasing diversity across industries is a key factor behind the highest economic growth that Mexico has ever experienced. The IntraLinks Dealflow Indicator reinforces these comments, having found that Mexico’s M&A deal activity grew 35% in 2010 over 2009. As Messmacher discussed Mexico’s current economic situation and the important steps they are undertaking to become a more globalized nation, it was exciting to think that a platform like IntraLinks could help them transform their M&A activities and improve their global deal flow. By giving companies the ability to manage more deals, IntraLinks is ideally positioned to enable companies to further capitalize on positive, overall growth in global deal activity.

Business travel is always the same, more or less, anywhere in the world you go. Security checkpoints, flight delays, and lines at the ticket counter are all a predictable part of what you’re in for when you fly the friendly skies. The only thing that can make flying a bit unpredictable is the weather. I, for one, hate turbulence. I’m not a nervous flier, I just don’t like feeling bumps in the air at 33,000 feet.

The M&A market kind of reminds me of a plane that hit some turbulence (back in 2008 and early 2009), but since then and according to our latest quarterly Deal Flow Indicator the market has regained cruising altitude. Year-over-year results for deal activity are up a healthy 24% for Q1 2011 and 72% from the bottom of the market in Q1 2009. It appears that M&A activity levels have normalized.

Relax.  Don’t freak out. Things in the M&A market are good.  In fact, they’re still very good.  We released our latest quarterly Deal Flow Indicator (DFI) and year end DFI results today.  Overall, 2010 was a big winner, showing a tremendous rebound from the doldrums of late 2008 and early 2009 that were brought on by the global financial crisis. The 2010 deal flow was up 33% from 2009. However, it’s unrealistic to expect that the numbers will continue to go up infinitely at every increment that you measure them. After six quarters of double digit sequential growth, the positive quarterly trends came to an end in Q4 2010. But it is a small correction, a mere three percent down in the M&A deal market that we observed in Q4 as an indicator heading into Q1 2011.

While I never put much stock into awards in the past, I now realize recognition is vital if for no other reason than it leads you to reflect on what you’ve accomplished and provides some useful perspective.

It all started about a month ago when IntraLinks began a sweep at the M&A Atlas Award ceremonies — winning awards in Asia, the Americas and Europe focused on recognizing leadership in M&A technology, specifically Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs). The three victories are meaningful because they come from the community of dealmakers who rely on VDRs everyday to do their jobs.