SonicWALL Reports Inducement Grants Under NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 5635

PRESS RELEASE

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SonicWALL, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNWL), a leading secure network infrastructure company, today announced that on October 20, 2009 the Compensation Committee of the company's Board of Directors approved the grants of options to purchase up to 11,600 shares of common stock with an exercise price equal to the fair market value on the grant date to a total of twenty (20) new employees of the company. These new employees were hired during the fiscal third quarter of 2009 and were hired principally as a result of in-sourcing European support operations.

Each option is a non-qualified stock option and has an exercise price equal to the fair market value of the underlying shares as of the grant date. The options vest as to 25% of the covered shares on the first anniversary of the grant date and as to 1/48 of the covered shares each month thereafter, so as to be 100% vested on the fourth anniversary of the grant date, subject to the employee's continued service. The options have a maximum term of seven (7) years.

The options were granted as inducements material to employment under the company's 2008 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan in accordance with NASDAQ Marketplace Rule 5635(c)(4).