St. Paul, Minn. - Merrill Corporation, a global, diversified communications and document services provider, today announced a 55 percent increase in earnings for the fiscal second quarter ended July 31, 2004. Revenue for the quarter was $180 million, an increase of 17 percent, compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2004. Net income for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2004, was $4.1 million, an increase of $1.4 million from the $2.7 million for the same period in the prior fiscal year. Revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2005 was $369 million, an increase of 20 percent compared to the first half of fiscal 2004. Net income for the first six months ended July 31, 2004, was $15.4 million, an increase of $9.2 million from the $6.2 million for the same period in the prior fiscal year. " We are very pleased with our strong second quarter revenue and earnings performance," said John Castro, CEO of Merrill Corporation. "More robust levels of financial market activity, in both our domestic and international markets, continued during the second quarter, resulting in strong revenue growth in our Financial Document Services business. We also saw good growth in the quarter-over-quarter revenues in our Strategic Communications Services business including financial services and brand management services. This overall revenue growth combined with our control of fixed costs, enabled us to realize significant profits from that growth. Additionally, we continue to grow our diversified business, most notably marketing and communication services to the real estate industry," said Castro.