Mark Zuckerberg kicks off Facebook's IPO road show

Washington, May 8 (ANI): Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has kicked off a cross-country road show to pitch his social networking giant's initial public stock offering.

Hundreds of institutional investors stood in long lines Monday to pile into a ballroom at New York's Sheraton Hotel to hear the billion-dollar pitch from the 27-year-old chief executive before his company's hotly anticipated IPO.

Facebook is building excitement for the IPO that within few weeks could place the value of the company at 96 billion dollars or more, The Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the paper, this would make it the largest offering to come out of Silicon Valley.

Investors are expecting price range to jump as the road show makes its way America, including stops in Boston and Chicago.

According to the paper, California-based Facebook has planned to raise as much as 11.8 billion dollars in its IPO.

The firm is expected to price the offering on May 17 and begin trading the next day.

The shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol FB. (ANI)