Symantec Announces Two-For-One Stock Split

Hong Kong -- 23 October 2003 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the world leader in Internet security, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a two-for-one stock split, to be effected in the form of a stock dividend. The company will discuss the split in more detail during its scheduled conference call to report fiscal second quarter 2004 earnings results.

Shareowners of record at the close of business on 5 November 2003 will be issued one additional share of common stock for each share owned as of that date.The company anticipates that the additional shares resulting from the split will be issued in book-entry form on or about 19 November 2003. Shareowners will be entitled to receive physical stock certificates upon request.The stock split will increase the number of total shares outstanding from approximately 154 million shares to approximately 308 million shares.

Conference Call
Symantec scheduled a conference call for 5 p.m. EDT/2 p.m. PDT on 22 October 2003 to discuss its fiscal second quarter 2004 earnings as well as the stock split. Interested parties may access the conference call on the Internet at http://www.symantec.com/invest/index.html. A replay and the script of our officers' remarks will be available on the investor relations home page shortly after the call is completed.

About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please view the Symantec Press Center at http://www.symantec.com/PressCenter/ on Symantec's Web site. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corporation. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.

Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of Symantec Corporation. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.

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.