Online auction giant eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), a business that counts Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) as related companies, was not popular in Wednesday's after-hours session. The third-quarter report just didn't do it for Wall Street, so Wall Street decided to make some trouble and bring the per-share price of the stock down by 4.5%. Oh sure, the company beat earnings by the most famous amount there is -- the proverbial penny -- but, according to this Bloomberg piece, guidance was not so inspiring.

The top line was actually pretty cool. Net sales saw an increase of 6%. Unfortunately, the bottom line couldn't take advantage of such growth. On an adjusted basis, net income dropped 16% to 38 cents per diluted share. And, as I just said, that was one penny ahead of the analysts.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has seen massive negative publicity come in from earlier in the summer to know in regards to its policies on the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone it currently has an exclusive on. After all, that $99 or $199 purchase was not giving customers complete control over over the freedom to do what they wanted with those precious iPhones.

When the AT&T/Google/Apple situation flared up recently, it caused the microscope on AT&T's strict controls on the iPhone to become even more intense.

eBay has held its own, despite the recession. Hence, I'm reiterating my Buy rating for eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) recommended on May 14, 2009, for $16.84. I you bought then, you're up about 40%.

Earlier this year, eBay sold a 65% stake in Skype for about $2.75 billion, enabling the company to focus on core operations at eBay and at PayPal.

"According to terms of the deal, the internet-based phone service will fall under the ownership of a private syndicate for about $1.9 billion.

"Former CEO Meg Whitman orchestrated the acquisition of Skype back in 2005 as a means of communication between buyers and sellers. And the service has attracted hordes of subscribers in a short period of time.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced Tuesday it has reached a deal to sell most of its stake in Skype in a deal that values the online telecommunications service at $2.75 billion. eBay will get $1.9 billion in cash and a $125 million note from the buyer.

An investment group led by the private-equity firm Silver Lake, including Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, will buy the 65% stake in the company. eBay, which will retain a 35% stake, expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

It looks like Skype is going to wind up with a new owner. Internet auction company eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) owns Skype now but is said to be selling the online telephony provider to private investors.

Andreessen Horowitz, a recently formed venture capital fund with Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen at the helm, is said to be a likely participant in a transaction. Index Ventures of London and Silver Lake Partners are also rumored to be involved.

While eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) said earlier this year that it was planning to spin off Skype in an initial public offering in 2010, it is now being reported that eBay is looking for a buyer willing to pay $2 billion or more for the internet telephone service provider.

Those interested in a buyout may include Andreesen Horowitz and Index Ventures, which were early investors in Skype before its eBay acquisition in 2005. A group of well-known venture capital and large private equity firms are pooling resources to join the bid, according to a source close to the deal.

As a small company, you probably have employees in remote locations. No doubt, there are many management and communications issues. Yes, it's often the case that things slow down -- or even fights break out.

While e-mail is helpful, it is usually not enough. Rather, it's worth looking at online collaboration tools.

First of all, these tools are usually affordable, with fees based on the number of users or the amount of storage used. Although, some providers may provide a free service.

So far this year, there are hopeful signs for the IPO market. Some of the standout offerings include Changyou (NASDAQ: CYOU) and Medidata (NASDAQ: MDSO).

Now, investors are waiting for other deals. Facebook? Twitter?

Or, how about Skype? In fact, the website's parent, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), has indicated its intention to take it public.

eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has been trying to figure out what to do about its failed acquisition of Skype and the company has finally come up with a solution -- sort of.

In a press release, the company said that it plans to spin-off Skype sometime in the first half of 2010.

"Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum," CEO John Donahoe said. "But it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications. In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines-e-commerce and online payments-and deliver long-term value to our stockholders."

As for M&A, eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) strategy has been mostly helter-skelter. In some cases, the deals were brilliant, such as for PayPal. But in other cases, the transactions have been wacky.

Well, it looks like eBay is cleaning up the M&A mess. And the first action-item: getting rid of StumbleUpon.

In the overall scheme of things, the transaction wasn't very material -- coming to $75 million (two years ago). But the site – which allows for the recommendation of sites -- did have lots of traffic and some brand in the marketplace. Under eBay's control, Stumbleupon increased registered users from 2.5 million to 7.5 million. What's more, the site plans to launch some new features, such as a search engine and a Twitter-friendly URL shortener.

It's universally believed that eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) overpaid badly for its $3.1 billion acquisition of Skype, a revolutionary online phone company that, regardless of how cool it happens to be, doesn't generate a lot of income or fit with eBay's core business in any meaningful way.

When Meg Whitman retired as CEO, John Donahoe replaced her and has said repeatedly that he is open to selling Skype.

Now you can have your iPhone conversation and see it, too. Skype, provider of VoIP technology, is reportedly debuting a free iPhone application in the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) store tomorrow. Rumors have it that a similar application will be available for users of Research in Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry in May.

The application will require Wi-Fi in order to work, and will search one's iPhone contacts to find users with Skype accounts. Therefore, iPod Touch users can take advantage of this feature as well, provided they have earphones with an embedded microphone.