The company argued in a court brief that the lawsuits filed against Facebook, some of its directors, the underwriters for its IPO and the Nasdaq stock market should be heard together in the federal court in the Southern New York district.

The cases rely on a "common nucleus of facts concerning the IPO and the decline in the price of Facebook shares," the company said in its brief, filed Thursday. Consolidating the cases will avoid duplication of discovery and possible inconsistent rulings, its lawyers wrote.

The lawsuits fall broadly into two categories. Those against Facebook and its underwriters allege Facebook shared information about the health of its business with analysts at the underwriters, including Morgan Stanley, who then shared the information verbally with large institutional investors, without disclosing it to the wider investing public.

That put smaller investors at a disadvantage and was a violation of federal securities laws, the lawsuits allege.

The second category of lawsuits, against the Nasdaq, stem from the technical problems that caused Facebook shares to start trading roughly a half-an-hour late on the morning of May 18, resulting in confusion among some investors about whether they had successfully traded shares and at what price.