Merriman Capital Adds Venture Banker Jon Buttles To Financial Entrepreneur Platform

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Merriman Capital, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: MERR), today announced the addition of venture investment banker Jon Buttles to its Financial Entrepreneur Platform.  Through the platform, Merriman contractually provides financial entrepreneurs with professional services, such as compliance and security licensing, facilities, legal services, distribution and technology infrastructure to help them grow their business.

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Mr. Buttles is the Founder and Managing Partner of Core Equity Group LLC, a venture banking boutique formed in 2004 that seeks to identify, accelerate and provide funding for earlier stage public and private companies.  Core Equity Group seeks to fill a gap in the marketplace where compelling and fast growing companies reside, but are just outside the client criteria of traditional investment banks. Prior to forming Core Equity Group, Mr. Buttles' career spanned the financial fields of technology investment banking, middle market private equity and corporate lending.

"In my career I have always gravitated towards working with passionate entrepreneurs and business owners, and being hands on in their development," remarked Mr. Buttles. "We have focused our business on providing services to these fast growing companies, and helping them evolve to a stage where institutional level banks and investors can participate. We believe certain industry dynamics, both regulatory and from an infrastructure standpoint, favor the support of investment in early stage innovative companies.  We are pleased to join the Merriman Capital platform and are confident that the relationship will provide us with a strong foundation on which to build and offer our services."

Merriman commented: "I have known Jon Buttles for several years and greatly respect his breadth of contacts and experience in helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals. As a firm, we have always been interested in finding ways to work with fast growing, private companies that represent great long term investment opportunities.  Jon joining our team gives him the ability to execute on exciting venture opportunities outside of our traditional institutional public company universe. We are excited to work with Jon in beginning to address this huge private and early stage public company market."

About Merriman Capital, Inc.
Merriman Capital, Inc. is an investment banking firm providing equity and options execution services, market making, and differentiated research for high growth companies. The firm also provides capital raising, advisory, and M&A services. Merriman Capital, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merriman Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: MERR) and is the leading investment banking firm for OTCQX companies. For more information, please go to http://www.merrimanco.com/.

Merriman Capital, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer and member of The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) http://www.finra.org/ and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) http://www.sipc.org/.

Note to Investors

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of the Company. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which include the risk factors disclosed in our Form 10-K filed on March 30, 2012. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," and "would" or similar words. We assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The Form 10-K/A filed on April 30, 2012, together with this press release and the financial information contained herein, are available on our website, www.merrimanco.com. Please click on "Investor Relations."

SOURCE Merriman Holdings, Inc.