Or Google buys Wolfram Research? I hope not, but how much would it be if it happened?
The important thing to understand is that Stephen Wolfram built Alpha as his personal "publication platform." He is going to use it to in effect "publish" his ideas about NKS and computation in general into immediately useful form, to the entire world. Rather than write papers.
Alpha isn't just some web startup looking for an exit. Its the culmination of a life's work in computation, and the offspring of a 20+ year old company.