Rumor: Quora prepares for IPO early next year

$4B seems pricey for a valuation. It apparently manages to make a profit, but I doubt it's the $200 million/year that would justify a valuation like that.

Rapidly growing tech companies defy easy valuations, but I don't think that they are. They've struggled to find a business model, and after years of trying seem to have settled on "Get user content and show ads". They've got strong search engine position, but the Q&A format means there's only so much room to grow it.

They've recently added a Medium-type model of premium content, but I have yet to notice that anything is going to attract many people to pay for it.

I could be wrong about all that. I'm not privy to the numbers. And even if I'm right, the market seems perfectly happy to justify extreme valuations of tech companies even if they're not really on a track for exponential growth.