Merrill Lynch Expands Deal with Multex.com

Merrill Lynch Wednesday made an undisclosed investment
into financial site Multex.com and the two expanded a partnership to develop Merrill Lynch’s online activities.

Merrill Lynch (MER)will acquire a minority equity stake in Multex.com and
transfer to Multex.com (MLTX)
proprietary research
technologies developed by Merrill Lynch.

The two firms will jointly develop
a platform for real-time delivery of Merrill Lynch investment strategy and
securities research, as well as build Web sites with localized content,
e-commerce functionality and support for wireless applications for
institutional clients. No financial terms were disclosed.

“Our mission is to provide corporate and institutional investor clients
around the globe with a portal that offers seamless integration of research,
advice, analytics, and trading capabilities,” said Thomas W. Davis, head of
Merrill Lynch’s Corporate and Institutional Client Group.

“This strategic
partnership with Multex.com will provide the research delivery component of
that portal-giving our clients the wisdom and insights of the world’s best
research team, delivered with the immediacy and convenience of the best
technology platform.”

The companies will also expand on their current partnership, in which Multex
provides hosting and operation service for Merrill Lynch’s Private Client
Group.

In addition to the deal with Merrill Lynch, Multex is also considering
expanding its investment research services into Europe. British and European
versions of multexinvestor.com
are slated to launch early in 2000.