Last fall, George Kurtz, the chief executive officer of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., gave investors a quarterly financial update that sent shares soaring. Among the details Kurtz highlighted was a major deal to sell cybersecurity tools for use by the US government.
“Identity threat protection wins in the quarter included an eight-figure total deal value win in the federal government,” Kurtz said on the earnings call after markets closed on Nov. 28, 2023.
Kurtz was referring to a $32 million order from Carahsoft Technology Corp., which serves as a middleman between technology companies and government agencies, that arrived on the last day of CrowdStrike’s fiscal third quarter. It was for identity threat protection software intended for the US Internal Revenue Service, according to documents from both companies.
But the IRS never bought the software, according to records reviewed by Bloomberg News and people with knowledge of the situation.