Expedia, Inc. (EXPE), an online service devoted to travel whose related companies include Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) and Priceline.com (PCLN), issued its Q4 results after the bell today. According to the report, which you can find at the company's investor site, adjusted net income increased 10% to 32 cents per share. TheFly says that this number came in below the estimate by a disappointing four pennies.

You can't always beat Wall Street's prediction. Shortly after the data was posted, the stock experienced a drop of 3.7%, making the quote equal to $24.74.

One of these days, Facebook is likely to go public. But how much could its shares be worth in an initial public offering? The numbers are all over the place. From Bloomberg's estimate late last year that it was worth $25 billion to Fortune's estimate last August of $50 billion. Now, there is another report from a financial research firm, Trefis, that pegs the value at $45 billion today -- but potentially as much as $125 billion, if a few things go right.

One of the things that could go right, is coming up a with a new way to generate revenue -- and Facebook says it has a plan. It's called "sponsored stories." The company plans to pull content out of members' status updates for use in advertisements that will appear in their friends' Facebook pages.

Baidu (BIDU), China's search engine giant, has seen its American depositary shares (ADSs) rise very nicely over the last 12 months. Yesterday, the ADSs closed up almost 2% to $108.63, not too far from the 52-week high of $115.04; the price movement was achieved on high volume. The 52-week low is $40.67, so those who bought in near the latter price are pretty happy campers.

That 2% rise, while quite respectable, wasn't the big story; rather, it was what happened during the after-hours session. The ADSs went up 7.7% to $116.99. Considering that we're in another earnings season, I don't think it's a particular challenge for anyone to guess what propelled the company to such lofty heights.

Yahoo is still trying to play catch up. Helped by cost cuts, Yahoo! (YHOO) posted late Tuesday fourth quarter income of $312 million, or 24 cents a share, more than double last year's income of $153 million, or 11 cents a share, according to the Wall Street Journal. Revenue fell 12% to $1.53 billion from $1.73 billion.

Net revenue, which excludes commissions paid to partners, fell 4% in the quarter to $1.22 billion from $1.26 billion in the year ago period. Excluding the Microsoft (MSFT) impact and certain divestitures, revenue grew by 2% in the quarter.

Google (GOOG) gave investors some Q4 numbers to digest after the bell on Thursday, but that news may have been overshadowed by a surprise change in management. As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, Larry Page will be taking over CEO duties from Eric Schmidt.

But let's have a look at the numbers anyway. On a reported basis, the search-engine business made $7.81 a share, good for a 27% year-over-year growth rate. On an adjusted basis, per-share profit came out to $8.75, comfortably ahead of the $8.06 projected by Wall Street. The top line also put in a strong showing.

There is quiet revolution taking place in communication. It's PC telephony. It's been around for years, but is catching the imagination of users around the world. The key driver of PC telephony is cost. Skype offers free online phone calls to any receiver who also has Skype.

Such calls require a microphone and desktop speakers. In a business setting where cubicles are adjacent to one another, the noise can be distracting.

Zynga's unusual twist to gaming has caught the imagination of players around the world and spurred them to play Zynga games. Zynga now has a quarter million users.

Zynga is a worldwide gaming site. Their games offer a different "take." Unlike standard games that move from beginning to finish, Zynga's games require an "energy" characteristic to play. Engaging in "Mission" is a core feature of many games which consumes a certain amount of energy. After expending energy, it slowly replenishes the character's maximum limit. This can take minutes or several hours. In the meantime, players can obtain game credits that allow them to replenish their character's energy or receive premium currency that could be exchanged for other various virtual goods. (Wikipedia)

Sources close to the social network Linkedln say it is planning to go public, as reported in Reuters. It has filed statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Owner Jeff Weiner told Reuters that he has selected Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America (BAC) and JP Morgan (JPM) as book runners. Book runners take the original stock offering and then resell it to retail clients.

Linkedln is a fast growing social networking site with 85 million viewers. Financial information is not available. Company revenues come from advertising. A source close to the company values it at about $2.2 billion.

The world of Internet traffic moves at lightning speed. So, too, do the moods and preferences of users. Back in 2007, News Corp's (NWS) MySpace was No. 1. Google.com (GOOG) took the No. 1 spot in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, Facebook has taken the No. 1 spot, with 8.9% of U.S. visits, edging Google.com, which had 7.2% of visits, Reuters reported, citing online measurement service Experian Hitwise.

Facebook was started by Mark Zuckerberg and a few classmates in 2004. Facebook users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact details and other information. Users can communicate with friends and other users through private or public messages and a chat feature. They can also join interest groups and "like pages."

According to an item highlighted by TheFly, it appears as if News Corp. (NWS) may be interested in selling MySpace. There are no guarantees, of course, but I'll tell you this: I hope a sale happens. And the sooner the better.

Sure, in theory, MySpace was a great acquisition. It was the hot destination on the web for a while. Reality, however, has a way of interfering with even the best ideas. The Internet can evolve very quickly; CEOs need to be extremely cautious about what they decide to buy when they are playing this part of the media game.

Sina (SINA), China's largest Internet portal, reported a jump of 87% in third-quarter profits from a year earlier, as stated in the Wall Street Journal.

Net profit was $31.3 million, or 49 cents share, up from $16.7 million or 29 cents a share, a year earlier. Earnings per share rose to 50 cents from 34 cents. Thomson Reuters' analysts had predicted 44 cents a share. Advertising revenue jumped 27% to $81 million from $63.8 million a year earlier.

Yahoo (YHOO) released third-quarter numbers after the bell on Tuesday, and they didn't do anything for the stock. Shares closed the regular session down 2.7% to $15.49. During the extended-hours period, I saw a quote go by of $15.53. That's right, the equity gained a measly four cents. Traders most certainly weren't applauding that performance.

Very recently, I wrote a bearish piece on the web portal. Since then, the stock has risen. Also, the company has been surrounded by some interesting speculation as of late regarding a potential takeover, with one theoretical scenario involving the owner of BloggingStocks, Aol (AOL).