Facebook is aggressively rounding up underwriters for its upcoming IPO  - maxing out the distribution of its shares, while establishing loyalties and research coverage throughout Wall Street. Facebook added 25 banks to help underwrite the company's initial public offering - bringing the current total to 31.  That would mean a very large tombstone, and that most of Wall Street will have a role in the share sale, according to an amended IPO filing on Wednesday.  Citigroup, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank are in this new added group. "The more banks you have, the more coverage you will have from those firms on the research side in the future.  These banks will get paid well and there's a lot of prestige associated with the Facebook IPO," said Dan Niles, of hedge fund AlphaOne Capital Partners. Niles further noted that including smaller financial firms could help ensure a wide distribution of Facebook's stock, because "Small firms will typically have some retail accounts, so it's a way to spread shares out to those people who may not have access to Facebook stock." In its Wednesday filing, Facebook also reported that it had secured two new credit facilities - one of which will help the company satisfy hefty tax withholding obligations and remittances related to employees' stock units following its IPO.

• $5 billion credit facility for "general corporate purposes," replacing a previous $2.5bn credit line.
• $3 billion bridge credit facility, providing Facebook with the needed funds to pay for tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the settlement of restricted stock units.

Facebook, the world's largest Internet social network, with more than 845 million users, is expects to raise $5 billion in an IPO that could value the company at up to $100 billion.  The company, which generated $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011, is increasingly challenging established Internet giants such as Google and Yahoo for users' online time and for advertising dollars. In an amended prospectus filed with regulators on Wednesday, Facebook acknowledged that 5-6% of its 845 million monthly active users are estimated to be "false or duplicate accounts."  Much of that estimate is attributed to mobile applications, which automatically contact the company's servers with no user action involved. [Reuters, via CNBC, 3/7/12]