Symantec Reports Record Quarter with 48 Percent Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth

Raises September Quarter and Fiscal Year Guidance

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- 21 July, 2004 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), the global leader in information security, today reported results for the fiscal first quarter ended July 2, 2004. Symantec posted revenue for the quarter of $577 million, a 48 percent increase compared to $391 million for the same quarter last year, driven by solid enterprise revenues and stronger than expected consumer results.

GAAP Results: Net income for the fiscal first quarter was $131 million, compared to $59 million for the same quarter last year. Earnings per share was $0.37, compared to earnings per share of $0.18 for the year-ago quarter.

Non-GAAP Results: Non-GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter was $142 million, compared to $75 million for the same quarter last year. Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.39, compared to earnings per share of $0.22 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, acquired in-process research and development, restructuring charges, and patent settlement charges as well as related income tax benefits. See “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information” below.

“Our enterprise business continues to gain momentum as we enhance our offerings to protect customers from a broadening array of threats and the consumer business continues to perform above expectations,” said John W. Thompson, Symantec chairman and CEO. “As security and network management continue to converge, we are well positioned with a broad portfolio of products and services to address both consumer and enterprise customer needs.”

Revenue Components
For the quarter, Symantec’s worldwide enterprise business, including enterprise security, enterprise administration, and services, represented 48 percent of total revenue and grew 24 percent. Symantec’s enterprise security business represented 35 percent of total revenue and grew 24 percent year-over-year; the enterprise administration business represented 11 percent of revenues and grew 27 percent; and the services business represented 2 percent of total revenue and grew 14 percent. Symantec’s consumer business grew 79 percent and represented 52 percent of total revenue.

International revenues represented 52 percent of total revenue in the first quarter and grew 51 percent over the same quarter last year. The Americas, including the United States, Latin America, and Canada, grew 43 percent. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region recorded 49 percent growth and Japan/Asia Pacific grew 62 percent.

Business Outlook
Symantec is raising forward-looking guidance for the fiscal second quarter ending Oct.1, 2004, as follows:

• Revenue is estimated at $580 million, an increase of $15 million from prior guidance.
• At this revenue guidance, GAAP earnings per share is estimated to be $0.34, an increase of $0.02 from previous guidance.
• At this revenue guidance, non-GAAP earnings per share is estimated to be $0.37, an increase of $0.03 from previous guidance.

Symantec is raising forward-looking guidance for fiscal year 2005 ending April 1, 2005, as follows:

• Revenue is estimated at $2.405 billion, an increase of $70 million from prior guidance.
• GAAP earnings per share is estimated at $1.48, an increase of $0.11 from previous guidance.
• Non-GAAP earnings per share is estimated at $1.57, an increase of $0.11 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 restructuring charges of approximately $14 million and $52 million for the quarter ending Oct. 1, 2004, and the fiscal year ending April 1, 2005, respectively.

Quarterly Highlights

• During the quarter the total number of transactions worldwide worth more than $100,000 each was 225, including 55 worth more than $300,000 each and 6 worth more than $1 million each. Customers from the quarter include Countrywide Financial, UPS, H&R Block, Exempla Healthcare, a not-for-profit community-based healthcare organization; and CHRISTUS Health, a faith-based, not-for-profit health system.
• International customers from the quarter include ZF Friedrichshafen, a leading worldwide automotive supplier for driveline and chassis technology based in Germany; Linde AG, an international technology group based in Germany with leading market positions in gas and engineering, material handling, and refrigeration; Raiffeisen Informatik AG, a technology company, based in Switzerland, responsible for managing and securing the shared infrastructure of the Raiffeisen Group, the third largest Bank in Switzerland with more than 1,200 locations; Globus Gruppe, a part of MIGROS, the largest retailer in Switzerland; Grupo Nacional Provincial, a leading Mexican insurance company; Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies, based in Korea.
• During the quarter Symantec announced and closed the acquisition of Brightmail and launched Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam Version 6.0, which provides new non-English language filters and powerful administration enhancements. This version includes a centralized Web-based control center, consolidated logging and reporting, and global policies that can be created on a per-user or per-group basis.
• In addition, Symantec launched Symantec Client Security 2.0, a centrally managed client security solution that integrates antivirus, firewall and intrusion prevention technologies. The solution provides zero-day protection for enterprise clients against blended threats and worms.
• Symantec also announced Symantec Enterprise Firewall 8.0 for Windows and Solaris platforms, which provides proactive, enterprise-class network and application-level protection by integrating full application inspection, application-layer proxies, stateful inspection and packet filtering technology.
• Symantec announced Symantec Client Migration 3.0, an easy-to-use solution designed to reduce the costs and user downtime associated with PC migration. The solution streamlines the migration process by automating many of the repetitive tasks associated with PC migration.
• During the quarter Symantec released Incident Manager 3.0, with improved performance and usability it correlates security events in real time across disparate security technologies and network tiers to identify, prioritize and coordinate the resolution of security incidents. Incident Manager 3.0 is now integrated with BMC Software’s Remedy Help Desk and Action Request System (AR System) enabling faster and more succinct communication between internal IT and security teams. This will result in quicker response and resolution to security incidents and vulnerabilities ensuring that businesses achieve a greater level of business continuity.

About Symantec
Symantec is the global leader in information security providing a broad range of software, appliances and services designed to help individuals, small and mid-sized businesses, and large enterprises secure and manage their IT infrastructure. Symantec's Norton brand of products is the worldwide leader in consumer security and problem-solving solutions. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has operations in more than 35 countries. More information is available at http://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. All prices noted are in US dollars and are valid only in the United States.

Symantec, the Symantec logo and Brightmail 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 industry patterns, 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 integrate acquired businesses, and the degree to which these products and businesses 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 recently filed Form 10-K. Symantec assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release.

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 other intangibles and in-process research and development, and certain other identified charges, such as restructuring and patent settlement, 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 also be found on the investor relations Web site at www.symantec.com/invest/.

SYMANTEC CORPORATION
GAAP Consolidated Statements of Income

* For the three months ended June 30, 2004 and 2003, diluted net income per share is calculated using the if-converted method. Under this method, the numerator excludes the interest expense from the 3% convertible subordinated notes, net of income tax, of $3.6M for each of the three months ended June 30, 2004 and 2003, and the denominator includes shares issuable from the assumed conversion of the 3% convertible subordinated notes.

SYMANTEC CORPORATION
Non-GAAP Consolidated Statements of Income
Non-GAAP amounts exclude all acquisition related amortization of intangibles, acquired IPR&D, patent settlement and restructuring charges.

* For the three months ended June 30, 2004 and 2003, diluted net income per share is calculated using the if-converted method. Under this method, the numerator excludes the interest expense from the 3% convertible subordinated notes, net of income tax, of $3.6M for each of the three months ended June 30, 2004 and 2003, and the denominator includes shares issuable from the assumed conversion of the 3% convertible subordinated notes.

SYMANTEC CORPORATION
Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Gross Profit, Operating Expenses and Consolidated Statements of Income to the GAAP Gross Margin, Operating Expenses and Consolidated Statements of Income

SYMANTEC CORPORATION
Consolidated Balance Sheets