It seems the tech industry has been talking about Facebook (News - Alert) launching their IPO for quite a while now. That is why the fact that the social networking giant has yet to actually make their IPO public has been such a surprise. Facebook has watched companies that use their site to make their money launch their own Initial Public Offering before Mark Zuckerberg’s (News - Alert) pride and joy has managed to do so. 

Some of this is simply because the company just doesn’t need to take that step in order to stay lucrative. Zuckerberg can pick and choose when his company will actually let the IPO go.

One thing is clear, and that is Facebook will indeed launch that IPO eventually. The site has been going through quite a few different upgrades in order to make it that much more attractive when it does. The latest upgrade is the launch of the long awaited “listen with friends”, one of the more popular add-ons for the site.

Now new reports are now saying that Facebook is looking to finally go public in the third week of May. This is a particularly interesting turn of events because it means a company that has been extremely private about its finances will have to allow the government to go over them with a fine tooth comb. In fact, if Facebook is looking to actually hit that target date, they will need to divulge their financial secrets to the SEC (News - Alert) within the next month.

This is not the first time “sources” have said there was a target date for Facebook to float their IPO. Because of that, any of this information has to be taken with a grain of salt, but needless to say, quite a lot of eyes will be looking at the SEC over the next couple of weeks to see what moves. 

Most industry insiders are projecting the Facebook IPO could top $1 billion, which would make it the most expensive tech IPO ever. Considering how successful the company has been over the last few years, that isn’t exactly a surprise.

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