Having disbanded its International MarketNet share price and financial data services joint venture with IBM, Merrill Lynch & Co still needs an electronic information service for its 10,000 account executives and the army of small local stockbrokers with which it does business. It has now turned to computer services giant Automatic Data Processing Inc to develop a customised share price quote system for its brokers. ADP, based in Roseland, New Jersey, bought Bunker Ramo Information Systems from Allied Corp last year, thereby acquiring the next biggest share price quotation service after Quotron. The agreement with Merrill-Lynch calls for the first of Merrill’s users to go on-line to the new system within one year, and for everyone to be on within three years. Financial details of the pact were not given.
