May 15, 2019

CrowdStrike files for IPO amid 2020 hacking fears

Dan Primack

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

CrowdStrike, a Sunnyvale, California-based cybersecurity company, filed for a $100 million IPO on Tuesday. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq with Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter, and reports a $140 million net loss on $250 million in revenue for 2018.

Why it matters: This is the company best known for investigating the 2016 election hacking scandal, and it plans to go public as fears ramp up over interference attempts in 2020.

ROI: CrowdStrike raised over $480 million in VC funding from firms like Warburg Pincus (30.3% pre-IPO stake), Accel (20.3%) and CapitalG (11.2%). Its most recent post-money valuation was $3.35 billion, in June 2018.

The bottom line, via Axios cybersecurity reporter Joe Uchill: CrowdStrike is well-esteemed for endpoint detection technology, incident response and research into threat actors, who it's given colorful nicknames like Fancy Bear and Gothic Panda.

Go deeper: CrowdStrike hires Goldman Sachs for IPO

Go deeper

Kendall Baker

The race to catch Nike's Vaporfly shoe before the 2020 Olympics

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Four months ago, on the very same weekend, Eliud Kipchoge became the first human to run a marathon in under two hours, and fellow Kenyan Brigid Kosgei shattered the women's marathon record.

Why it matters: Kipchoge and Kosgei were both wearing Nike's controversial Vaporfly sneakers, which many believed would be banned because of the performance boost provided by a carbon-fiber plate in the midsole that acted as a spring and saved the runner energy.

Go deeperArrow40 mins ago - Sports
Dion Rabouin

Reassessing the global impact of the coronavirus

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Economists are rethinking projections about the broader economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak after a surge of diagnoses and deaths outside Asia and an announcement from a top CDC official that Americans should be prepared for the virus to spread here.

What's happening: The coronavirus quickly went from an also-ran concern to the most talked-about issue at the National Association for Business Economics policy conference in Washington, D.C.

Go deeperArrow45 mins ago - Economy & Business
Scott Rosenberg

Tech can't remember what to do in a down market

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios

Wall Street's two-day-old coronavirus crash is a wakeup alarm for Silicon Valley.

The big picture: Tech has been booming for so long the industry barely remembers what a down market feels like — and most companies are ill-prepared for one.

Go deeperArrow3 hours ago - Technology