Q: Has anyone removed the stand from the monitor?

Apple displays can use an industry-standard VESA mount, where you take off the stand and attach the VESA stand or wall mount. I've never done it, but here is the Apple manual that tells you how to remove the stand and put the VESA adapter on.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/VesaMountAdapterInstallationGuide.pdf

Removing the stand is actually very easy. Just takes a torx screwdriver and 60 seconds.

As NullUnit mentioned, it is quite easy to remove the stand but you will need the VESA adapter kit to replace it. This will give you the standard 100mm VESA mounting holes that you would then connect to any mounting arm you wish.

Personally I bought this MX Desk Mount Arm as it was rated to hold the weight of the display (~30#) whereas others were not (~18#). I originally mounted the display in a vertical/portrait orientation but the arm didn't go high enough so I had to mount a 6" block of wood to my desk first. I enjoyed the monitor so much that I have since moved it to become my primary monitor. The arm allowed me to lower the display all the way to my desk so I could just look over it (to watch TV). Couldn't have if it was still on the stand.

Hope this helps.