The Software HOLDRS Trust issues depositary receipts called Software HOLDRS, representing an undivided beneficial ownership in the common stock or American depositary shares of specified companies that are involved in various segments of the software industry. The Software HOLDRS Trust was formed under the depositary trust agreement, dated as of September 22, 2000, among The Bank of New York, as trustee, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, other depositors and the owners of Software HOLDRS. The 17 issuers of underlying securities represented by Software HOLDRS, as of August 1, 2005, were Adobe Systems Incorporated, BMC Software Inc, Computer Associates International, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Intuit Inc., Macromedia, Inc., Mercury Interactive, Microsoft Corporation, Micromuse Inc, Nuance Communications Inc, Openwave Sys Inc, Oracle Corporation, Sap Aktiengesellschaft, Sapient Corporation, Siebel Systems Inc, Symantec Corp and Tibco Software Inc.