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.

“It is easy to be brave when far away from danger” – Aesop.

The above quote is an apt description of Corporate Development and CFO behavior over the past few years due to many companies choosing to accumulate cash on their balance sheets rather than deploy it for acquisitions. However, this is not to diminish the importance of taking a cautious approach in turbulent times as the aforementioned storyteller also sagely noted “It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow”.

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.

I’m proud to echo the announcement that a leading analyst firm, Gartner, recently recognized IntraLinks as being the global market leader in team collaboration software based on revenues. This is a result that IntraLinks has now earned for the fifth year running.

It’s especially rewarding  to be a leader in a market that’s both large and growing. According to the report referenced above, Gartner, Inc., Market Share Analysis: Team Collaboration and Web-Conferencing Software, Worldwide, 2010, Tom Eid, Bianca Francesca Granetto, April 29, 2011, the team collaboration software market grew 17% in 2010, a 50% increase from 2009. Growth is predicated on market size, however. For example, growth of 500% for a $5M market yields a $25M market, which isn’t particularly exciting. The team collaboration software market was $774M in 2010 – larger than you may have thought, right?

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.