CrowdStrike exec: alleged M&A process with Action1 'never happened'

Reported claims by Action1 that CrowdStrike was planning to acquire the patch management firm for nearly $1 billion are ‘outrageous,’ CrowdStrike’s Gur Talpaz said in a LinkedIn post.

Reported claims that CrowdStrike sought to acquire patch management firm Action1 for nearly $1bn have no basis in reality, according to a CrowdStrike executive.

In a LinkedIn post Wednesday, Gur Talpaz, vice president of corporate development at CrowdStrike, characterised the reported claims as "outrageous."

Talpaz said that CrowdStrike representatives did hold a meeting with Action1 in May following the RSA Conference. However, after the meeting—which did not include senior CrowdStrike leaders—the talks did not go any further, Talpaz wrote in the post.

Earlier this month, though, an alleged internal email from Action1 CEO Alex Vovk to staff members reportedly claimed that CrowdStrike was "interested" in acquiring the company for nearly $1bn.

In his LinkedIn post Wednesday, Talpaz said this scenario is entirely fictional.

"CrowdStrike had one, 45-minute group conversation following RSA with Action1. Not one single senior member of the CrowdStrike team was a part of this conversation – me included," he wrote. "Action1 signed no NDA. We did not receive a single diligence item of any kind and disengaged after a surface level conversation."

Talpaz said the "false reports of an offer and process" with Action1 that emerged this month were the result of "a ‘leaked' email with outrageous claims, including a valuation that was never discussed and an M&A process that never happened."

CRN has reached out to Action1 and CrowdStrike for comment.

On Tuesday, Action1 issued a press release saying the company had received "multiple acquisition inquiries over the past year, including from well-known industry players" — but that Action1 "has chosen to continue operating independently to fully realise its vision." The release did not mention CrowdStrike.

While CrowdStrike typically ignores reports on M&A discussions, the reported claims involving Action1 go "far beyond anything I've ever experienced in my career," Talpaz wrote in the post, which is why he felt it necessary to "set the record straight."

"This behaviour destroys trust and undermines the credibility of our industry," he wrote.

The reports came weeks after a defective update by CrowdStrike led to a massive Microsoft Windows outage, which led to widespread disruptions to airlines, health care providers and organizations in many other sectors.

Delta, which cancelled thousands of flights, has said the outage cost the airline $500m in lost revenue, and estimates suggest the total cost to businesses will reach into the billions of dollars.

CrowdStrike has pledged to do additional testing and deploy staged rollouts of updates, with the aim to prevent such issues in the future.