In 2012 - reportedly disillusioned after sitting by a plane passenger who took 15 minutes to download a McAfee update - the New Jersey-educated Kurtz founded CrowdStrike, which went on to list on the Nasdaq and sign a majority of Fortune 500 firms as customers for software, including the “Falcon” platform that monitors an organisation’s IT systems for hacking attempts, viruses, and other threats.
CrowdStrike’s success minted Kurtz a personal fortune worth some US$3.1 billion, according to a recent Forbes estimate.
His firm’s shares closed down 11% today, wiping about US$11b from its market cap and US$300m from its founder’s net worth, based on his stake.
Kurtz also took a PR hit for his failure to apologise for the global chaos caused by CrowdStrike’s glitchy update in his initial social media post. It would be six hours before he issued a mea culpa.
Mopping up
The Austin, Texas-based CrowdStrike earned just over $140m from the Australian and New Zealand markets last year - up from $75m in 2022 - according to Companies Office records. But only $4m of the total was booked on this side of the Tasman.
Worldwide, the firm made a US$89m net profit on revenue that rose by around a third to US$3.05b.
Before Friday’s foul-up, CrowdStrike’s shares had been on a tear, more than doubling in value over the past year.
CrowdStrike says it is still trying to determine the “logic flaw” that caused the “blue screen of death” to appear on PCs after its buggy Falcon update.
Banks and other large organisations with 24/7 support teams have installed a CrowdStrike patch and have now restored most systems, bar some mopping up operations.
But CyberCX security expert Dan Richardson told the Herald that the true extent of the damage caused on Friday evening wouldn’t be known until next week when smaller firms returned to the office.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
