In a Wednesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz indicated the cybersecurity outfit is confident in its finances as it faces a government inquiry about information related to a massive outage last year, along with deals and other matters.
‘”Someone asks a question, we’re going to cooperate. It’s an inquiry, and we’ll give them the answers they need and, and we’ll go from there,” Kurtz said. “We stand by the accounting of those transactions.”
Last July, CrowdStrike suffered a major IT outage that disrupted businesses around the world, including airlines, hospitals and financial services firms. CrowdStrike attributed the issues to a faulty software update, “not a security incident or cyberattack,” Kurtz said at the time.
Crowdstrike released its quarterly report Tuesday night, which sent shares plummeting during Wednesday’s session, down 5.77% by close. Although the company posted solid earnings and revenue, it disappointed Wall Street with a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast for the current quarter.
Kurtz told Cramer that customers have been sticking with the company despite the outage, saying CrowdStrike has seen a 97% retention rate. He also explained that the company’s package to help customers and partners deal with the issue lead to an $11 million loss in the quarter.
“I think we handled it the right way, I think customers respect us for that,” Kurtz said. “And, ultimately, we gained greater intimacy with those customers, and they’re buying more through Falcon Flex.”
