CrowdStrike shareholders lose battle to recoup losses from 2024 outage

A group of CrowdStrike shareholders who sued the company over losses sustained following its 2024 global outage will have to head back to the drawing board if they hope to recoup losses, as a Texas judge has deemed they failed to adequately state a claim.

The plaintiffs in the case alleged 15 statements from CrowdStrike leadership were misleading. US District Judge Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas ruled [PDF] on Monday that, while he agreed two of those statements were plausibly misleading, the shareholders failed to plausibly plead that they were made with the intent to defraud investors, a required element of a securities-fraud claim.

"Plaintiffs have failed to plausibly plead a strong inference of scienter [intent or knowledge of wrongdoing] for the individual Defendants or for CrowdStrike itself," Pitman opined. "Thus, even though the Court found … that Plaintiffs had plausibly alleged two misleading statements, the Court will ...