A seven judge panel ruled on Thursday that 41 lawsuits filed in California, Florida and New York against Facebook, NASDAQ and underwriters connected to the social media's disastrous IPO in May be heard in New York, Bloomberg reported.
The lawsuits are to be transferred to U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet in Manhattan.
The suits are based on technical glitches with the NASDAQ stock exchange during the much anticipated IPO and charges from investors that Facebook selectively disclosed negative information about its business prospects to Wall Street analysts who then selectively shared it with investors.
Stocks plummeted by as far as 50 percent after the IPO and all-in-all shares have lost more than 40 percent of their value, according to Reuters. The stock closed yesterday in New York at $21.95.
Reuters reported that even though some of the cases concern different defendants and claims, the panel found, "they do involve enough common questions of fact, related circumstances and common discovery to warrant centralization."
Founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 1974, Facebook is the Number 1 social network, hitting a milestone of one billion users on September 14. The network added 45 million users since June according to its website, Reuters reported.
Reuters also reported that the company issued a statement saying it plans to "vigorously" oppose the suit.
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