CrowdStrike lost nearly $11 billion in value overnight after Friday's global IT outage caused widespread chaos across airlines, banks and other industries.
The cybersecurity company's market cap was $83.48 billion on Thursday, and was $72.68 billion on Friday morning. It's share price was down 12 percent to $301.51 at 09:43 a.m. ET, shortly after markets opened. It closed at $343.05 on Thursday and had plunged nearly 20 percent in pre-market Friday as IT systems around the world failed and businesses reeled.
Reports of outages affecting Microsoft systems began surfacing around 3 p.m. in Australia, affecting a wide range of services. Supermarkets, petrol stations, and banks experienced payment system failures, while airport check-in systems were disrupted, leading to long delays and stranded passengers.
In the U.S. several major airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded flights on Friday morning, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
U.K.-based airports and airlines also reported issues. London's Gatwick Airport said "passengers may experience some delays while checking in and passing through security." British broadcaster Sky News was temporarily unable to broadcast on Friday morning, and the country's GP appointments system was also down.
The cause of the disruption was confirmed by CrowdStrike's CEO George Kurtz in a post on X, formerly Twitter. He said the issue was down to "a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts" and that a fix had been deployed.
Kurtz said it was not a security incident or cyberattack.
"We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website," he added.
"The market's always a volatile thing," Scott J. White of George Washington University told Newsweek.
White, the director of the university's Cybersecurity Program and Cyber Academy said, "CrowdStrike is an excellent cyber defense company with global reach. But I think what it demonstrates to us at a macro level, is the complex and interdependent relationship that exists in the world in technology. Inevitably, you're not going to have an absolutely perfect system."
"That there seems to have been a relatively quick disclosure, CrowdStrike is keeping the community informed, that tells me they're a good corporate citizen in the marketplace."
"There is no attempt to obfuscate or attempt to hide, they've been very upfront, they've taken responsibility for this," he added.
White said CrowdStrike would need to thoroughly how the outage happened and continue to keep the public informed.
Commenting on the outage, Microsoft said: "We can confirm the affected update has been pulled by CrowdStrike. Customers that are continuing to experience issues should reach out to CrowdStrike for additional assistance."
Microsoft stock was down less than one percent early Friday, after the tech giant's share price had fallen more than two percent to $431 in pre-market. It closed at $440.37 on Thursday.
Update, 7/19/24, 05:14 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update, 7/19/24, 07:28 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information, including a statement from George Kurtz.
Update, 7/19/24, 09:52 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information following markets opening. The headline was also updated.
Update, 7/19/24, 12:18 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Scott J. White.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected]
fairness meter
About the writer
Marni Rose McFall is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics, social affairs and ... Read more
