Facebook IPO expected on May 18

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is expected to make his company public on May 18, in one of the most highly anticipated tech initial public offerings (IPO) since Google in August 2004, according to a published report. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the billion dollar social networking company was set to begin its roadshow on Monday, according to insiders familiar with the dealings. Facebook’s roadshow will be a series of meetings with prospective institutional investors and is designed to stir interest in the company’s stock. According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg will appear at some of the meetings.

Facebook is aiming to raise roughly $5 billion in the offering, giving the company a value of about $100 billion. Last month, Facebook announced its purchase of Instagram, a popular mobile photo-sharing application with the same name, for $1 billion, making the buy its largest acquisition ever. At the end of 2011, Facebook had 845 million monthly active users. As of March 31, the company has 901 million monthly active users.