NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is suggesting that trading problems at the Nasdaq Stock Market contributed to a sharp drop in the company's stock price after its initial public offering.

In laying out a defense against dozens of lawsuits from disgruntled shareholders, Facebook and the banks overseeing the IPO also insist that nothing about its IPO process was illegal or even out of the ordinary.

The defense came in a court filing in which Facebook and the banks, led by Morgan Stanley, are seeking to combine the more than 40 federal and state lawsuits around the country into one federal case in New York.