This afternoon, eBay delivered its third quarter earnings report, and it's a good bet that the company was eager to do so. eBay beat analysts' forecasts for the third quarter, gave better-than-expected guidance regarding the fourth quarter, and also discussed an interesting stock buyback program. Let's start with the third quarter results. eBay managed to report earnings per share of $0.40, which is a significant improvement compared to the $0.37 analysts predicted. It also earned $2.25 billion in revenue rather than the expected $2.18 billion.