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EXHIBIT 99.1
PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT No. 4
(To Prospectus Supplement No. 3 dated June 30, 2000 and
to Prospectus dated November 22, 1999)
[LOGO]
1,000,000,000 Depositary Receipts
Biotech HOLDRS Trust
This prospectus supplement amends and supplements information contained in
the prospectus dated November 22, 1999 relating to the sale of up to
1,000,000,000 depositary receipts by Biotech HOLDRS Trust.
The depositary trust agreement entered into between Merrill Lynch, Pierce,
Fenner & Smith Incorporated, as the initial depositor, and The Bank of New York,
as trustee, has been amended as of November 22, 2000. The agreement has been
amended to revise the rules related to distributions of securities from the
Biotech HOLDRS Trust.
The depositary trust agreement has been amended to provide the following:
. if a company included in the Biotech HOLDRS Trust distributes
securities, the distributed securities will not be distributed from
the Biotech HOLDRS Trust, unless either the distributed securities
are not listed for trading on a U.S. national securities exchange or
through Nasdaq NMS or the distributed securities have a Standard &
Poor's sector classification that is different from the Standard &
Poor's sector classifications represented in the Biotech HOLDRS
Trust at the time of the distribution, and
. if the securities of a company included in the Biotech HOLDRS Trust
are no longer outstanding, as a result of a merger, consolidation,
corporate combination or other event, any securities received in
exchange for those securities will not be distributed from the
Biotech HOLDRS Trust, unless either the securities received in
exchange are not listed for trading on a U.S. national securities
exchange or through Nasdaq NMS or the securities received in
exchange have a Standard & Poor's sector classification that is
different from the Standard & Poor's sector classifications
represented in the Biotech HOLDRS Trust at the time of the exchange.
Standard & Poor's Corporation is an independent source of market
information that, among other things, classifies the securities of public
companies into various sector classifications based on its own criteria. There
are 11 Standard & Poor's sector classifications and each class of publicly
traded securities of a company are given only one sector classification. As of
the date of this prospectus supplement, the securities included in the Biotech
HOLDRS Trust are represented in the Healthcare and Technology sectors. The
Standard & Poor's sector classifications of the securities included in the
Biotech HOLDRS Trust may change over time if the companies that issued these
securities change their focus of operations or if Standard & Poor's alters the
criteria it uses to determine sector classifications, or both.
It is anticipated, as a result of Standard & Poor's broadly defined sector
classifications, that most distributions or exchanges of securities will not
result in the distribution of securities from the Biotech HOLDRS Trust. The
trustee will review the publicly available information that identifies the
Standard &
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Poor's sector classifications of securities to determine whether securities
received as a result of a distribution by an underlying issuer or in exchange of
securities included in the Biotech HOLDRS Trust will be distributed from the
Biotech HOLDRS Trust to you.
The date of this prospectus supplement is November 28, 2000.
