CUPERTINO, Calif. - Oct. 22, 2003 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the world leader in Internet security, today reported results for the fiscal second quarter 2004 ended Oct. 3, 2003. Symantec posted revenue for the quarter of $429 million, a 32 percent increase compared to $325 million for the same quarter last year, driven by strong enterprise security growth and higher than expected results in the consumer segment.

GAAP Results: Net income for the fiscal second quarter was $83 million, compared to $52 million for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share was $0.49, compared to earnings per share of $0.33 for the year-ago quarter.

Non-GAAP Results: Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal second quarter was $91 million, compared to $60 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.53, compared to earnings per share of $0.38 for the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP results and related reconciliation, as outlined in the attached consolidated statements, exclude expenses from the amortization of other intangibles from acquisitions and acquired in-process research and development as well as related income tax benefits. See "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information" below.

"It was a stellar quarter across the board with strong performances in all regions," said John W. Thompson, Symantec chairman and CEO. "Our integrated approach for enterprises and consumers continues to gain momentum and set the bar for the rest of the industry."

Revenue Components
For the quarter, Symantec's worldwide enterprise business, including enterprise security, enterprise administration, and services, represented 55 percent of total revenue. Symantec's enterprise security business represented 41 percent of total revenue and grew 25 percent year-over-year; the enterprise administration business represented 12 percent of revenues and declined 8 percent in line with expectations; and the services business grew 53 percent and represented 2 percent of total revenue. Symantec's consumer business grew 56 percent and represented 45 percent of total revenue.

International revenues represented 50 percent of total revenue in the second quarter and grew 39 percent over the same quarter last year. Canada led the increase for the quarter with 49 percent growth, followed by the Europe, Middle East and Africa region with 46 percent growth. Japan recorded 27 percent year-over-year growth, Asia Pacific recorded 24 percent growth and Latin America had 9 percent growth. The United States grew at 26 percent.

Business Outlook
Forward-looking guidance for the fiscal third quarter ending Jan. 2, 2004, is as follows:

• Revenue is expected to be in the range of $440 to $460 million.
• GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $0.52 at the midpoint of the revenue guidance.
• Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $0.56 at the midpoint of the revenue guidance.

Forward-looking guidance for the fiscal year, ending April 2, 2004, updated to reflect the fiscal year-to-date actual performance and estimated results for the fiscal third and fourth quarters is as follows:

• Revenue is expected to be approximately $1.73 billion.
• GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $1.90 at the stated revenue forecast, up 15 cents from previous guidance.
• Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be $2.10 at the stated revenue forecast, up 14 cents from previous guidance.

Non-GAAP earnings per share excludes the pre-tax amortization of other intangibles from acquisitions, acquired in-process research and development, and other items such as patent settlement and restructuring charges of approximately $11 million and $58 million for the quarter ending Jan. 2, 2004, and the fiscal year ending April 2, 2004, respectively.

Quarterly Highlights

• Symantec signed 129 contracts worldwide worth more than $100,000 each, including 36 worth more than $300,000 each and 6 worth more than $1 million each, during the quarter.
• Symantec signed new or extended agreements with customers including Nextel; Cinergy, one of the nation's largest utility companies; Digex, Incorporated, a leading provider of enterprise hosting services; Rinker Materials, one of the nation's leaders in building and construction materials; Qualex, Inc., the largest wholesale and on-site photofinishing company in the world; Storage Technologies Corp., a worldwide data storage company; Sykes Enterprises, a global leader in providing outsourced customer management solutions and services; and CenturyTel, Inc., the nation's eighth largest local telephone exchange company.
• Symantec also signed new or extended agreements with public sector and education customers including Temple University; the State of Tennessee; the U.S. Department of the Interior; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Department of State; the U.S. Army; and the Internal Revenue Service.
• Around the world, Symantec signed contracts with customers including South Korea-based Samsung Electronics; Jainam Technologies, a leading IT solutions company in India; and ANZ Bank, one of Australia's largest financial institutions.
• Symantec introduced its new line of firewall appliances, the Symantec Gateway Security 5400 Series. The 5400 series offers a unique combination of superior price performance, integrated protection, and flexible licensing. The appliance provides comprehensive gateway level protection by integrating full inspection firewall, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, antivirus, content filtering, virtual private networking (VPN), and anti-spam technology into a single device.
• During the quarter, Symantec updated the world's premier global early warning system with the launch of Symantec Deep Sight Threat Management System 5.0. The early warning security system gathers firewall, intrusion detection and now antivirus data from more than 20,000 partners worldwide to provide proactive alerts on active attacks to customers. The system now includes an optional custom reports add-on, enabling organizations to mine the global event database by time, country, and industry to better analyze security events.
• Symantec also announced the Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds product line to protect consumers and enterprise users. Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds - Corporate Edition integrates with existing enterprise infrastructures and improves management by providing a centralized view of virus protection information.
• In addition, Symantec launched its 2004 line of consumer security products including Norton Internet Security, Norton AntiVirus, Norton Personal Firewall, Norton AntiSpam and Norton SystemWorks, which includes Norton Password Manager. The new products provide protection from viruses, intrusion attempts, and privacy threats and now offer expanded protection from emerging threats including spyware, adware, keystroke logging programs, and spam.

Conference Call
Symantec has scheduled a conference call for 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT today to discuss fiscal second quarter 2004 results, and to review guidance for the fiscal third quarter. Interested parties may access the conference call on the Internet at http://www.symantec.com/invest/index.html. To listen to the live call, please go to the Web site at least 15 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A replay and the script of our officers' remarks will be available on the investor relations home page shortly after the call is completed.

Consolidated Financial Statements

USE OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL INFORMATION: In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Symantec reports non-GAAP financial results. Non-GAAP net income and earnings per share exclude acquisition related charges, such as amortization of goodwill and other intangibles, and certain other charges, such as restructurings and site closures, as well as the tax effect of these items. Symantec's management believes these non-GAAP measures are useful to investors because they provide supplemental information that facilitates comparisons to prior periods. Management uses these non-GAAP measures to evaluate its financial results, develop budgets and manage expenditures. The method Symantec uses to produce non-GAAP results is not computed according to GAAP, is likely to differ from the methods used by other companies and should not be regarded as a replacement for corresponding GAAP measures. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP results, which is attached to this release and can be found on the investor relations Web site at www.symantec.com/invest/center.html.

About Symantec
Symantec is the world leader in providing solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security, availability, and integrity of their information. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 40 countries. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

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FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including forecasts of future revenue and earnings per share, expected activities, and other financial and business results that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: the sustainability of recent growth rates, particularly in consumer products; the anticipation of the growth of certain market segments, particularly enterprise security; the positioning of Symantec's products in those segments; the competitive environment in the software industry; general market conditions, fluctuations in currency exchange rates, changes to operating systems and product strategy by vendors of operating systems; and whether Symantec can successfully develop new products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in the Risk Factors sections of Symantec's previously filed Form 10-K and 10-Q. Symantec assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release except as otherwise required by law.