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PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT No. 4 Registration No.333-89355
(To Prospectus Supplement No. 3 Rule No. 424(b)(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 & 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.
