It's another week, and another 25 banks have joined the Facebook's initial public offering party, bringing the grand total of financial backers to 31.

Whoa whoa whoa -- Why on Earth does Mark Zuckerberg and company need nearly three dozen banks to prepare its stock offering? First of all, keep in mind that this is also a brand-building exercise for Facebook, so it's chosen to stack its list with minority and women-owned banks. Second, it's a big IPO, and according to Dow Jones, "It's not unusual for 25 to 30 banks to work on large offerings such as Facebook's." So why not offer a long and diverse roster of players to choose from? Facebook's army of bankers looks like this:

The Original Six:

1. Morgan Stanley
2. JPMorgan Chase
3. Goldman Sachs
4. Bank of America
5. Merrill Lynch
6. Barclays Capital
7. Allen & Co.

The Blithe Twenty-Five:

1. Citigroup
2. Credit Suisse Group
3. Deutsche Bank
4. RBC Capital Markets
5. Wells Fargo
6. Blaylock Robert Van
7. BMO Capital Markets
8. C.L. King & Associates
9. Cabrera Capital Markets
10. CastleOak Securities L.P.
11. Cowen & Co.
12. Lazard Capital Markets
13. Lebenthal & Co.
14. Loop Capital Markets
15. M.R. Beal & Co.
16. Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc.
17. Muriel Siebert & Co.
18. Oppenheimer & Co.
19. Pacific Crest Securities
20. Piper Jaffray & Co.
21. Raymond James & Associates
22. Samuel A. Ramirez & Co.
23. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.
24. The Williams Capital Group
25. William Blair & Co.

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Adam Clark Estes