Symantec Announces Record Fourth Quarter

NEWS RELEASE

SYMANTEC ANNOUNCES RECORD FOURTH QUARTER
AND FISCAL YEAR END 2000 RESULTS
Key Enterprise Wins and Increased Retail Market Share Drive Growth

CUPERTINO, Calif, April 19, 2000 - Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that continued strength in the retail market and solid performance in the enterprise market resulted in record revenue of US$ 187.2 million for the fourth fiscal quarter, ended March 31, 2000.

This represents an increase of 22 percent, on a pro-forma basis, over the same quarter a year ago. Net revenue, on a pro-forma basis, for fiscal year 2000 was US$ 704.9 million, an increase of 33 percent compared to revenue of US$ 530.1 million for fiscal year 1999. All figures, except the March 2000 quarter numbers, exclude the results of operations from the company’s recent divestiture of the Visual Café and ACT! product lines.

Earnings before the amortization of goodwill and one-time charges for the quarter increased 62 percent to US$ 40.2 million, compared to earnings of US$ 24.7 million in the same period a year ago. For fiscal year 2000, earnings before amortization of goodwill and one-time charges were US$ 130.9 million, an increase of 65 percent from fiscal year 1999.

Earnings per share before the amortization of goodwill and one-time charges for the fourth quarter was US$ 0.63, 46 percent higher than the same quarter last year and 19 percent higher than the previous quarter.

For fiscal year 2000, earnings per share before the amortization of goodwill and one-time charges was US$ 2.10, an increase of 56 percent compared to the earnings per share of US$ 1.35 for fiscal year 1999.

Symantec incurred a quarterly charge related to the amortization of goodwill of US$ 4.5 million and one-time charges of US$ 7.1 million. The charges were primarily associated with in process R&D related to the purchase of L-3 Network Security and reductions in workforce related to site consolidations.

“During the fourth quarter, we solidified several strategic relationships in the OEM and infrastructure space and continued our success with our key retail suites. In addition, we signed a number of significant enterprise customers worldwide,” said John W. Thompson,
Symantec chairman, president and CEO. “We ended our fiscal year with a greatly expanded market opportunity to deliver enhanced risk management solutions targeted at the enterprise. Our consistent performance over the past year provides clear evidence of solid execution and focus on the growing importance of corporate security.”

Worldwide, Symantec’s consumer business in the fourth fiscal quarter grew by 26 percent compared to the March 1999 quarter and represents 58 percent of total revenue for the quarter. The growth was driven by the strong performance of Norton Internet Security since its launch in December and the continued strength of Norton SystemWorks.

Enterprise revenue for the quarter represents 42 percent of Symantec’s revenue mix and grew at 16 percent from the March quarter a year ago. Symantec’s license business grew 49 percent from fiscal year 1999 and accounts for 46 percent of total revenue for fiscal year 2000.

In the March 2000 quarter, international revenue represented 43 percent of total revenue. International revenue increased 31 percent from the March quarter a year ago. Driven by continued strong performance in the enterprise license business, Symantec’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region grew 24 percent from the March quarter a year ago and accounts for 27 percent of total revenue. Revenue from the Asia Pacific region grew at 31 percent and represents four percent of total revenue.

Symantec’s Japan region grew at 35 percent and accounts for nine percent of total revenue.

Quarterly Highlights
 Symantec completed the acquisition of L-3 Network Security’s vulnerability assessment and security consulting business, adding proactive security solutions and value-added services to the company’s Internet security portfolio.
 New worldwide enterprise customers included Bank of America, SmithKline Beecham, Deutsche Bank, Georgia Pacific and Sprint PCS.
 Symantec signed a strategic infrastructure agreement with Brightmail to provide the industry’s first integrated anti-virus and anti-spam solution for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs).
 Symantec had continued success with its OEM strategy, distributing product on more than 20 million systems, or nearly 15 percent of personal computers sold worldwide.
 Norton Internet Security claimed 74 percent retail market share since its introduction in December, according to PC Data sales statistics.
 Norton SystemWorks continued its strong performance with 83 percent retail market share, according to PC Data.

About Symantec
Symantec, a world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security solutions to individuals and companies. The company is a leading provider of anti-virus protection, risk management, Internet content and e-mail filtering, and mobile code detection technologies to enterprise customers. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in more than 24 countries and is represented in New Zealand by Auckland based distributors SealCorp and Tech Pacific.
For further press information please view http://www.symantec.com/region/au_nz/PressCenter/nz.html

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Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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, new security threats 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 2, 1999.

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