In response to complaints from investors, Symantec said it would hold a hybrid annual meeting next year that would allow investors to attend in person or participate electronically, according to the Reuters news service. 

“We've listened to the feedback from our stockholders and will host a hybrid meeting next year," a Symantec spokeswoman said, according to Reuters. "We remain committed to open communications with our stockholders and understand the importance for stockholders to share their concerns."

Symantec held a virtual-only annual meeting on Sept. 20, and was one of the first S&P 500 companies to hold do so.  The plan troubled some investor activists, including the U.S. Proxy Exchange, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group, which organized a letter-writing campaign. Among the investors and groups that wrote letters to Symantec were the Council of Institutional Investors, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the First Affirmative Financial Network, SRI investors Harrington Investors and Clean Yield, U.K.-based Co-operative Asset Management, and retail activists John Chevedden and Jim McRitchie, according to the group. 

Symantec's decision is "fantastic," said Glyn Holton, executive director of U.S. Proxy Exchange. "Individual investors, who have long been neglected and ignored, can have an impact," Holton said, according to Reuters.