424B3 1 f424b3_040203-software.txt FORM 424B3 TO SOFTWARE HOLDRS FILED PURSUANT TO RULE NO. 424(b)(3) PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT REGISTRATION NO. 333-43766 (To Prospectus dated January 29, 2002) [LOGO OMITTED] 1,000,000,000 Depositary Receipts Software HOLDRS (SM) Trust This prospectus supplement supplements information contained in the prospectus dated January 29, 2002 relating to the sale of up to 1,000,000,000 depositary receipts by the Software HOLDRS (SM) Trust. The share amounts specified in the table on page 12 of the base prospectus shall be replaced with the following:
Primary Share Trading Name of Company (1) Ticker Amounts Market ------------------------------------------ ------------ ----------- ------------ Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE 6 NASDAQ BMC Software, Inc. BMC 7 NYSE Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. CHKP 6 NASDAQ Computer Associates International, Inc. CA 17 NYSE Intuit Inc. INTU 6 NASDAQ i2 Technologies, Inc. ITWO 10 NASDAQ Macromedia, Inc. MACR 1 NASDAQ Mercury Interactive Corporation MERQ 2 NASDAQ Micromuse Inc. MUSE 2 NASDAQ Microsoft Corporation (2) MSFT 30 NASDAQ Nuance Communications, Inc. NUAN 1 NASDAQ Openwave Systems Inc. OPWV 2 NASDAQ Oracle Corporation ORCL 24 NASDAQ Peoplesoft, Inc. PSFT 8 NASDAQ SAP AG-preference shares * SAP 16 NYSE Sapient Corporation SAPE 3 NASDAQ Siebel Systems, Inc. SEBL 8 NASDAQ TIBCO Software Inc. TIBX 5 NASDAQ Veritas Software Corporation VRTS 7 NASDAQ
______________________ *The preference shares of this non-U.S. company trade in the United States as American Depositary Receipts. Please see "Risk Factors" and "United States Federal Income Tax Consequences--Special considerations with respect to underlying securities of foreign issuers" for additional factors to consider with respect to an investment in a non-U.S. company. (1) As a result of the acquisition by International Business Machines Corp. of Rational Software Corp., Rational Software Corp. is no longer included in the Software HOLDRS. For the 5 shares of Rational Software Corp. previously represented in each round lot of 100 Software HOLDRS, the Bank of New York received $52.50, which was distributed at a rate of $0.51775 ($0.525 less a $0.007250 custody fee) per each Software HOLDR to holders of record on February 28, 2003. (2) Microsoft Corporation announced a two-for-one stock split on its common stock payable to shareholders of record on January 27, 2003. Microsoft Corporation began trading on a split-adjusted basis on February 18, 2003. As of February 21, 2003, the share amount of Microsoft Corporation represented by a round lot of 100 Software HOLDRS increased to 30 shares from 15 shares. The share amounts listed in the table above reflect all previous stock splits, dividends and business combination transactions. The date of this prospectus supplement is March 31, 2003.