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Major IT Outage hits banks, airlines, businesses worldwide
Screens and tech services across the globe were hit by last year’s CrowdStrike outage (Diego Radames/Getty Images)

CrowdStrike’s mixed earnings report sends stock lower as company seeks to put last year’s outage in the rearview

CrowdStrike reported first-quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday.

Max Knoblauch

It was nearly a year ago that CrowdStrike reached household name status following a software glitch that caused possibly the largest IT outage ever. The cybersecurity firms first-quarter earnings report, posted Tuesday, highlights its continued efforts to move past it.

CrowdStrike posted earnings per share of $0.73, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.66 per share. Its revenue rose 20% year over year to $1.1 billion, a hair shy of the Wall Street consensus. The company posted annual recurring revenue of $4.44 billion, up 22%.

For its second quarter, CrowdStrike expects sales of between $1.14 billion and $1.15 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.82 to $0.84. Thats compared to analysts expectations for $1.16 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.81, according to FactSet.

Investors were nonplussed, sending CrowdStrike shares, which have soared lately, down more than 6% after the report.

Last year, CrowdStrike reported $60 million in costs related to its outage. In its latest earnings, the company reported another $39.7 million in outage costs. CrowdStrike has projected millions of dollars more tied to discounts the company has offered customers as a mea culpa.

Despite costs still lingering, CrowdStrike shares have recovered, breaking record closing highs three times in the past week before Tuesdays drop after the bell. The stock has more than doubled off the lows it fell to last July shortly after the outage.

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Target Opens "Target SoHo" - A Design-Forward Shoppable Concept Store In SoHo, New York

As Target alters its dress code, it also wants staff to buy more of its clothes

The retailer’s apparel and accessories sales hit their lowest point since the pandemic last year.

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Sony and Honda are scrapping Afeela, their joint EV that you could play PlayStation in

Less than two weeks after Honda said it would take an up to $15.7 billion write-down as it restructures its EV business, the automaker is scrapping an electric vehicle made in a joint venture with Sony.

The Afeela 1, a $90,000 EV with PlayStation 5 integration, was set to begin deliveries later this year.

A nearly six-figure EV that you could play “The Last of Us” in doesn’t exactly sound like a bestseller in the current electric vehicle landscape, but the announcement is still surprising given how far along the joint venture was. The JV had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the grand opening of its delivery hub in California on March 21. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the JV teased a crossover SUV prototype as a second model.

In Honda’s EV write-down announcement earlier this month, the automaker canceled three models planned for production in the US.

A nearly six-figure EV that you could play “The Last of Us” in doesn’t exactly sound like a bestseller in the current electric vehicle landscape, but the announcement is still surprising given how far along the joint venture was. The JV had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the grand opening of its delivery hub in California on March 21. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the JV teased a crossover SUV prototype as a second model.

In Honda’s EV write-down announcement earlier this month, the automaker canceled three models planned for production in the US.

business

Disney ends its OpenAI deal after Sora video app is shuttered

Disney is exiting its first-of-its-kind deal with OpenAI now that the AI giant is winding down its AI video app, Sora, according to reporting by The Hollywood Reporter.

The news comes just three months after the deal — which included a reported $1 billion Disney investment in OpenAI and a license for the AI giant to use some Disney characters — was first announced.

“We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators,” a Disney spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

“We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learned from it, and we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators,” a Disney spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

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United CEO says airfares would have to go up another 20% to “break even” if fuel prices remain elevated

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby expects oil prices to stay higher for longer and warned that airfares, which have already gone up by double digits in the past few weeks, will need to climb another 20% in order for the airline to “break even” on fuel.

“Airfares are up 15% to 20% in the last few weeks, but that’s sort of covering half to 60% of the inflationary increase, so I think we have some room to go,” Kirby said in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. “If oil prices stayed where they are today, that’s $11 billion of expense for us. And that would require prices to be up 20% to break even.”

Kirby said that he is sure there will be some consumer pushback to increased fares, but added, like several other airline execs recently, that Q1 demand is still strong.

“Demand is the strongest its been, ever. The top 10 booking weeks of the year have all been in 2026 so far,” he said.

Jet fuel costs have remained elevated amid the US war with Iran, with prices cracking the $4 mark last week, according to the Argus US Jet Fuel Index. Since US airlines have virtually all given up the practice of fuel hedging, they’re more exposed to volatility.

Last week, United issued a worst-case oil pricing forecast of $175 per barrel, with prices trading above $100 through 2027.

“Its reasonable for us to plan for that regardless, because the downside is pretty limited,” said Kirby. “Like, [if] we leave a little bit of demand on the table by not flying quite as much this summer, so what.”

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