CrowdStrike falls on report Delta hired attorney over outage

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.’s shares fell to their lowest level since December over a report that Delta Air Lines Inc. had hired a prominent attorney following a technology outage that led the carrier to cancel thousands of flights. 

CNBC on Monday reported Delta hired attorney David Boies to seek possible compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft Corp. No suit has been filed, CNBC reported, without specifying where the information came from. 

CrowdStrike said in a statement to Bloomberg that it had no knowledge of a lawsuit and declined further comment. Delta and Boies’ law firm declined to comment, while Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

CrowdStrike shares on Tuesday sank as much as 10% on the report, touching the lowest intraday level since December. Microsoft fell about 1%.

An errant software update from CrowdStrike earlier this month led to widespread outages of Microsoft systems, disrupting industries across the globe. While many airlines were able to recover fairly quickly, Delta’s cancellations extended into the middle of the following week.

The US Department of Transportation last week opened an investigation of the carrier’s handling of the breakdown. Analysts have said the upheaval could cost Delta hundreds of millions of dollars in lost profit this quarter, in addition to any potential fines.