Symantec Recognizes Contribution of Electronic Commerce Partners to On-line Growth

Symantec gives awards to on-line partners that contributed to record e-business growth in 1998

CUPERTINO, Calif. - March 1, 1999 - Symantec Corporation (Nasdaq: SYMC) has recognized the contribution of key on-line distributors and resellers during 1998 with the company's first E-Commerce Partner Awards.

The awards were made to on-line partners whose outstanding sales performance over the Internet during 1998 contributed to record e-commerce revenues for Symantec. For the December 1998 quarter, the company's revenue from electronic resellers grew 212 percent over the previous quarter.

The 1998 E-Commerce Award winners were:

• Electronic Distributor of the Year: BITSource Corporation
• Electronic Reseller of the Year: Buy.com
• Account Manager of the Year: Zim Jackson, Insight
• Deal of the Year: Outpost.com

Among utility and communication software vendors, Symantec's web presence is the strongest in the industry. Data released by Media Metrix showed that an estimated 897,000 new and unique visitors accessed the Symantec website in December. In addition to e-commerce activity, Symantec is building a strong web presence through the use of technologies such as LiveUpdate, which provides users with virus definitions, detection engine updates and bug fixes automatically; LiveUpdate Pro, a subscription service which provides update patches and drivers for a wide range of hardware and software; and numerous on-line technical support services.

"The Internet is rapidly developing into a significant channel for Symantec to satisfy customer needs. The performance of our e-distributors and e-tailers is a key factor in our e-commerce growth," says Pamela Roberts, senior director of electronic commerce at Symantec. "This year's recipients have focused on Symantec products as a core component of their e-commerce strategies and demonstrated that they too have identified how the Internet can deliver what customers want."

"We are very proud to be Symantec's Electronic Distributor of the Year for 1998," says David Rubin, president of BITSource. "Symantec is one of our key publisher partners and one of the first to recognize the growing trend of customers who want to take advantage of electronic software volume licensing. We look forward to helping Symantec continue to be an e-commerce leader in 1999."

Symantec's 1999 E-Commerce partner awards will be announced in January 2000 at the Symantec Electronic Commerce Symposium.

Forward looking statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. There are certain important factors that could cause Symantec's future development efforts to differ materially from those anticipated by some of the statements made above. Among these are the anticipation of the growth of certain market segments, the positioning of Symantec's products in those segments, the competitive environment in the software industry, dependence on other products, changes to operating systems and product strategy by vendors of operating systems, and the importance of new Symantec products. Additional information concerning those and other factors is contained in the "Risk Factors" section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 3,1998 and in the company's quarterly report Form 10-Q for the third fiscal quarter ended January 1, 1999.

About Symantec
Symantec is the world leader in utility software for business and personal computing. Symantec products and solutions help make users productive and keep their computers safe and reliable anywhere and anytime. Symantec offers a broad range of solutions and is acclaimed as a leader in both customer satisfaction and product brand recognition. Symantec is traded on Nasdaq under the symbol SYMC. More information on the company and its products can be obtained at www.symantec.com.

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