CrowdStrike $CRWD took a roughly $60 million hit to its sales pipeline last month after a botched software update halted business across the world, impacting everything from airlines and financial institutions to hospitals.
The cybersecurity firm said Wednesday that the incident scared off customers looking to close deals during the final weeks of its second quarter. Executives still expect it will be able to complete those contracts before the end of CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) fiscal year.
CEO George Kurtz cited the company’s prior history of reliability and the speed of its technology in reacting to threats. Even as companies were grappling with the effects of CrowdStrike’s (CRWD) mistakes, analysts were still labeling it the “gold standard” for the industry.
“Our mission is alive and well, and I know that CrowdStrike’s very best days are ahead of us,” Kurtz said on a call with analysts, as he apologized to customers. “The magnitude of the July 19th incident will never be lost on me and my commitment is to make sure this never happens again.”
More than half of Fortune 500 companies use CrowdStrike’s software, according to a promotional video from the firm earlier this year. As of March, at the end of the company’s fiscal year 2024, CrowdStrike had more than 29,000 subscription customers, excluding smaller customers served through its partners.
Several companies have likely been hit with major bills as a result of CrowdStrike’s botched update. Delta Air Lines (DAL) has said it will take CrowdStrike to court over the incident, pointing to the $500 million it says it spent on compensation for workers and customers. Delta will also pursue legal action against Microsoft $MSFT (MSFT), which had issues with its Azure cloud service that also inconvenienced businesses last month.
“The outcome of litigation is inherently difficult to predict, particularly in the early stages and it is still too early for us to estimate any potential legal exposure we may have at this time,” CFO Burt Podbere said during the call with analysts, adding that customer agreements contain language limiting the firm’s liability.
CrowdStrike’s revenue grew 32% year-over-year during its second quarter, which ended in July, to $964 million. Net income grew to $47 million, up from $8.5 million a year earlier.
CrowdStrike stock is up by more than 5% in trading Thursday at $279 per share. The stock is up by almost 13% year-to-date, although it’s well-below its peak of $392 per share in early July.