Facebook headed for its monster IPO in May, says report

Social media titan Facebook will likely hold its long-awaited initial public offering in the third week of May, according to a new report by All Things D.

Facebook’s IPO is expected to be one of the largest technology-focused deals ever, with a rumored $10 billion offering on a $100 billion valuation. We’ve heard rumblings of Facebook’s IPO for quite some time, but the noise has gotten louder following the IPOs of Groupon, Zynga and Jive Software over the past several months.

If Facebook does plan to go public in May, the company will need to file its IPO documents in the next month to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines. The SEC usually takes up to four months to review documents, and a company like Facebook will draw much scrutiny. Facebook’s reach is enormous, and it has more than 800 million active users. In August, it will likely reach 1 billion users, which amounts to 14 percent of the world.

The company’s success comes from transforming itself from being a network to an expansive platform of communication, gaming, digital commerce and marketing. You can see a full breakdown of all you need to know about Facebook’s upcoming IPO here.

Facebook’s IPO will be an important step for the company and will help it accumulate the cash to battle Google, which just incorporated Google+ social results into its core search product. Google’s move could significantly hurt Facebook in search traffic, but expect Facebook to creatively step up the fight for traffic and eyeballs with Google.