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<TYPE>EX-99.1
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<DESCRIPTION>EXHIBIT 99.1
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                                                                    Exhibit 99.1


          Merrill Lynch Reports First Quarter 2007 Results:
            Net Revenues of $9.9 Billion, up 24% from 1Q06

             Record Net Revenues from FICC, Equity Markets
                  and Investment Banking Businesses

               Net Earnings Per Diluted Share of $2.26,
              up 37%, Excluding One-Time Expenses in 1Q06

               Return on Average Common Equity of 23.3%

    NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2007--Merrill Lynch (NYSE:
MER) today reported strong growth in net earnings and earnings per
diluted share for the first quarter of 2007, driven by net revenues of
$9.9 billion. Net revenues were up 24% from the prior-year period and
up 14% from the fourth quarter of 2006, with increases both
year-over-year and sequentially in both Global Markets and Investment
Banking (GMI) and Global Wealth Management (GWM), and in all global
regions. These are the second-highest quarterly net revenues Merrill
Lynch has ever generated, only $51 million lower than in the third
quarter of 2006, when net revenues included a $2.0 billion one-time,
pre-tax gain arising from the merger of Merrill Lynch Investment
Managers (MLIM) with BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK).

    First quarter 2007 net earnings per diluted share were $2.26, up
414% from $0.44 for the first quarter of 2006, or 37% on an operating
basis which excludes $1.2 billion, after taxes, of one-time

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compensation expenses from the 2006 first quarter. Net earnings per
diluted share were down 6% from $2.41 for the fourth quarter of 2006.
First quarter 2007 net earnings were $2.2 billion, up 354% from the
first quarter of 2006, or up 31% excluding the one-time expenses in
the prior-year period. Net earnings were down 8% from the fourth
quarter of 2006, which included a lower compensation expense ratio.
The pre-tax profit margin for the first quarter of 2007 was 31.4%, and
the annualized return on average common equity was 23.3%. At the end
of the first quarter, book value per share was $41.95, up 13% from the
end of the first quarter of 2006 and 1% from the end of 2006.

    "This was a terrific quarter. In an environment which was volatile
at times, we took full advantage of market opportunities and delivered
value to our clients and our shareholders," said Stan O'Neal, chairman
and chief executive officer. "Our product capabilities and geographic
reach are stronger and broader now than at any point in our history,
and we continue to make investments to further enhance our franchise.
We remain focused on disciplined growth to capitalize on the positive
secular trends we continue to see unfold."

    Business Segment Review:

    In the first quarter of 2006, Merrill Lynch recorded $1.8 billion,
before taxes ($1.2 billion after taxes), in one-time compensation
expenses. These expenses were recorded in the business segments as
follows: $1.4 billion to Global Markets and Investment Banking, $281
million to Global Wealth Management and $109 million to Merrill Lynch
Investment Managers (which ceased to exist as a business segment upon
its merger with BlackRock). Comparisons to that period in the
following discussion of business segment results exclude the impact of
these one-time expenses. A reconciliation of these segment results
appears on Attachment III to this release.

    Global Markets and Investment Banking (GMI)

    GMI generated record revenues, both overall and in each of its
three major business lines, for the first quarter of 2007, as the
business continued to execute on targeted organic and inorganic
investments for diversification and profitable growth, executed with
strong operating discipline in a favorable market environment.
Non-U.S. revenues, which continue to comprise more than half of GMI's
total net revenues, grew significantly faster than U.S. revenues in
the period.


    -- GMI's first quarter 2007 net revenues were a record $6.5
       billion, up 43% from the year-ago quarter. Compared with the
       first quarter of 2006, net revenues increased in all three
       major business lines:

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        -- Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) net
           revenues increased 36% to a record $2.8 billion driven by
           nearly every major revenue category, as revenues from
           credit products, real estate, interest rate products and
           currencies grew to record levels. Revenues from trading
           commodities also increased significantly. Revenues from
           mortgage-related activities declined, resulting from a
           difficult environment for the origination, securitization
           and trading of non-prime mortgage loans and securities in
           the U.S. Revenues from activities related to U.S. non-prime
           mortgages, in aggregate, comprised less than 1% of Merrill
           Lynch's total net revenues over the past five quarters.

        -- Equity Markets net revenues increased 50% to a record
           $2.4 billion, driven by every major business line,
           including a strong increase from private equity and record
           revenues from both the equity-linked and proprietary
           trading businesses.

        -- Investment Banking net revenues increased 47% to a record
           $1.4 billion, as record revenues in debt origination were
           complemented by strong growth in revenues from both merger
           and acquisition advisory services and equity origination.

    -- Pre-tax earnings for GMI were $2.3 billion, up 48% from the
       year-ago quarter, driven by the strong revenue growth. The
       first quarter 2007 pre-tax profit margin was 35.8%, up from
       34.7% in the prior-year period.

    Global Wealth Management (GWM)

    GWM generated strong revenue and pre-tax earnings growth in the
first quarter of 2007. The growth was driven by Global Private Client
(GPC), which increased its net revenues year-over-year for the tenth
consecutive quarter, as well as by the contribution of Global
Investment Management (GIM), including earnings from Merrill Lynch's
investment in BlackRock. GPC continues to focus on delivering a
superior product and service offering, positioning Merrill Lynch
Financial Advisors (FAs) as essential partners to their clients. GPC
also continues to invest in technology to further enhance both the
efficiency and effectiveness of the FA force, and to invest in growing
the FA census globally.

    -- GWM's first quarter 2007 net revenues were $3.4 billion, up 16%
       from the first quarter of 2006:

        -- GPC's net revenues increased 11% to $3.1 billion, driven by
           every major revenue category, including record fee-based
           revenues, which reflected higher asset values and net flows
           into annuitized-revenue products. Transaction and
           origination revenues also increased, driven by new issue
           origination activity, and net interest revenues grew to a
           new record level.

        -- GIM's net revenues increased 151% to $261 million, due
           primarily to revenues from Merrill Lynch's investment in
           BlackRock, which began to contribute to revenues during the
           2006 fourth quarter, as well as increases in revenues from
           Merrill Lynch's ownership positions in other investment
           management companies and the business that creates
           alternative investment products for GPC clients.

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        -- Pre-tax earnings for GWM in the first quarter of 2007 were
           $842 million, up 31% from the first quarter of 2006, driven
           by the growth in revenues. The pre-tax profit margin was
           24.7%, up from 21.9% in the prior-year period, driven by
           the impact of the investment in BlackRock.

        -- Turnover among FAs, especially top-producing FAs, remained
           low. FA headcount reached 15,930 at quarter-end, as GPC
           continued to exercise discipline in recruiting and training
           high-quality FAs.

        -- Client assets in products that generate annuitized revenues
           ended the quarter at $633 billion, up 13% from the first
           quarter of 2006, and total client assets in GWM accounts
           were a record $1.6 trillion, up 10%. Net inflows of client
           assets into annuitized-revenue products were $16 billion
           for the first quarter, and total net new money was $16
           billion.

        -- On January 29, Merrill Lynch announced that it had reached
           a definitive agreement to acquire First Republic Bank
           (NYSE: FRC), a private banking and wealth management firm
           focused on high-net-worth individuals and their businesses,
           for approximately $1.8 billion in cash and stock.

    Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM)

    On September 29, 2006, Merrill Lynch merged MLIM with BlackRock in
exchange for a total of 65 million common and preferred shares in the
newly combined BlackRock, representing an economic interest of
approximately half. Following the merger, the MLIM business segment
ceased to exist, and under the equity method of accounting, an
estimate of the net earnings associated with Merrill Lynch's ownership
position in BlackRock is recorded in the GIM portion of the GWM
segment. For the first quarter of 2006, MLIM's net revenues were $570
million, and its pre-tax earnings were $222 million.

    Additional Items:

    Compensation Expenses

    Compensation and benefits expenses were $4.9 billion, or 49.6% of
net revenues for the first quarter of 2007. Excluding the one-time
compensation expenses in the first quarter of 2006, compensation and
benefits expenses for that prior-year period were $4.0 billion, or
50.1% of net revenues.

    Non-compensation Expenses

    Overall, non-compensation expenses were $1.9 billion for the first
quarter of 2007, up 15% from the year-ago quarter. Total
non-compensation expenses decreased 3% sequentially primarily due to
lower professional fees and litigation provisions.

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    Non-compensation expenses as a percentage of net revenues further
decreased, to 19.0% in the 2007 first quarter, from 20.4% in the 2006
first quarter. Details of the significant changes in non-compensation
expenses from the first quarter of 2006 are as follows:

    --  Brokerage, clearing, and exchange fees were $310 million, up
        20% due primarily to higher transaction volumes.

    --  Occupancy costs and related depreciation were $265 million, up
        10% due principally to higher office rental expenses and
        office space added via acquisitions.

    --  Professional fees were $225 million, an increase of 13% due to
        higher legal and other professional fees associated with
        increased business activity levels.

    --  Advertising and market development costs were $158 million, up
        10% due primarily to higher travel expenses associated with
        increased business activity levels.

    --  Expenses of consolidated investments totaled $59 million, up
        from $47 million due principally to increased expenses
        associated with the related increase in revenues from
        consolidated investments.

    --  Other expenses were $316 million, up 39% due primarily to
        increased minority interest expenses associated with private
        equity investments and increased charitable contributions;
        partially offset by lower litigation provisions.

    Income Taxes

    Merrill Lynch's first quarter effective tax rate was 30.3%,
compared with 19.9% for the first quarter of 2006, or 29.8% excluding
the one-time compensation expenses.

    Share Repurchases

    As part of its active management of equity capital, Merrill Lynch
repurchased 22.4 million shares of its common stock for $2.0 billion
during the first quarter of 2007, leaving $1.2 billion remaining of
the $5 billion repurchase program authorized in October 2006.

    Staffing

    Merrill Lynch's full-time employees totaled 60,300 at the end of
the first quarter of 2007, a net increase of 4,100 during the quarter,
due principally to the acquisition of the First Franklin mortgage
origination and servicing platforms at the beginning of the quarter.

    Jeff Edwards, senior vice president and chief financial officer,
will host a conference call today at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss the
company's 2007 first quarter results. The conference call can be
accessed via a live audio webcast available through the Investor
Relations website at www.ir.ml.com or by dialing (888) 810-0245 (U.S.
callers) or (706) 634-0180 (non-U.S. callers). On-demand replay of the
webcast will be available from approximately 2:00 p.m. ET today at the
same web address.

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    Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management,
capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 37 countries
and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.6
trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and
underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of
asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations,
governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Merrill Lynch
owns approximately half of BlackRock, one of the world's largest
publicly traded investment management companies with more than $1
trillion in assets under management. For more information on Merrill
Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.

    Merrill Lynch may make forward-looking statements, including, for
example, statements about management expectations, strategic
objectives, growth opportunities, business prospects, investment
banking pipelines, anticipated financial results, the impact of off
balance sheet arrangements, significant contractual obligations,
anticipated results of litigation and regulatory investigations and
proceedings, and other similar matters. These forward-looking
statements are not statements of historical facts and represent only
Merrill Lynch's beliefs regarding future performance, which is
inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors, many of which
are beyond Merrill Lynch's control, which affect the operations,
performance, business strategy and results and could cause its actual
results and experience to differ materially from the expectations and
objectives expressed in any forward-looking statements. These factors
include, but are not limited to, financial market volatility; actions
and initiatives taken by current and potential competitors; general
economic conditions; the effect of current, pending and future
legislation, regulation, and regulatory actions; and the other
additional factors described in the Risk Factors section of Merrill
Lynch's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December
29, 2006 and also disclosed from time to time in its subsequent
reports on Form 10-Q and 8-K, which are available on the Merrill Lynch
Investor Relations website at www.ir.ml.com and at the SEC's website,
www.sec.gov.

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    Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which
they are made. Merrill Lynch does not undertake to update
forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or
events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements are
made. The reader should, however, consult any further disclosures
Merrill Lynch may make in its future filings of its reports on Form
10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K.

    Merrill Lynch may also, from time to time, disclose financial
information on a non-GAAP basis where management believes this
information will be valuable to investors in gauging the quality of
Merrill Lynch's financial performance and identifying trends.

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