CrowdStrike Faces Global IT Outage, Causing Market Turmoil and Customer Disruptions

CloudStrike shares plunge 10% as global IT outage prompts mass chaos:...

Shares of cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike plunged 10% to $307.65 per share Friday trading after a faulty software update caused a stunning mass shutdown of businesses around the world. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz scrambled to apologize for the crisis, which affected millions of customers using Microsoft Windows -- crippling airlines, banks, hospitals and various other clients. "This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike and the stock will be under pressure after this global outage related to Microsoft has caused massive disruption globally," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note Friday. The incident marked a significant setback for CrowdStrike, which had seen shares rise nearly 100% over the last 12 months as companies place more emphasis on cybersecurity and hack prevention. "I don't think it's too early to call it: this will be the largest IT outage in history," added cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt. Windows users experienced computer crashes and the dreaded "blue screen of death" that left them unable to restart. The issue was traced to Falcon, a CrowdStrike service that scans company devices for hacking attempts and other cybersecurity threats. The company issued a fix but it could take weeks for some users to get back online, one expert said. "The fix CrowdStrike has given is quite manual and may be difficult, in some cases, to deploy at large scale," Simo Kohonen, founder of Finland-based network security company Defused, told the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft's stock initially ticked lower but was down just 0.24% as officials confirmed a fix was underway. Big Tech giants Apple and Google parent Alphabet rose slightly. Rival cybersecurity firms appeared to benefit from the misstep. Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Cloudflare each rose about 1% in early trading. Despite the chaos, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was flat in early trading, as was the broad-based S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 200 points, or less than 1%. Though not as well-known as some tech firms, CrowdStrike is considered a major player in the budding cybersecurity industry. The company's revenue was $2.24 billion in fiscal 2023, a 54% increase compared to the previous year. "Today CrowdStrike becomes a household name but not in a good way and this will take time to settle down but does not change our positive long-term view of CrowdStrike or cyber security sector," Ives said in his note to clients. The software glitch added more pressure on tech stocks. Earlier this week, shares of chipmakers such as Nvidia plunged on warnings of new trade restrictions imposed by the Biden administration and Donald Trump's assertion that Taiwan should pay the US for defense against China. Still, long-term trends like expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and the rise of artificial intelligence as reasons for optimism, according to Glen Smith, chief investment officer at GDS Wealth Management. "The tech sector is currently on sale," Smith said in a note. "While there are sizable declines in the stocks of the individual companies that are closest to this tech outage, we expect the broader markets to look past Friday's outage," he added. Kurtz told NBC's "Today" show that he was "deeply sorry" for the global chaos caused by the glitch. In an X post, he said the incident was not caused by a cyberattack or security breach. "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts," Kurtz wrote. "Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted."

CrowdStrike: A digital storm

The U.S.-based company says a defect found in a content update of Falcon, its security platform, was what caused the global digital outage "Yesterday, CrowdStrike released an update that began impacting IT systems globally. We are aware of this issue and are working closely with CrowdStrike and across the industry to provide customers technical guidance and support to safely bring their systems back online," posted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on X on July 19. The statement did not capture the hours of global chaos, fear, and frustration that preceded his words. That day, airports in India switched to giving stranded flyers hand-written boarding passes while airlines in the U.S. grounded flights. Shoppers in Australia could not carry out digital payments and U.K. hospitals had to cancel patient appointments. The outage also affected thousands of everyday users who rely on Windows or other Microsoft offerings. Many opened their devices to see a 'Blue Screen of Death' error message, and had to scramble to find other devices and platforms. The issue only escalated through the day. India's Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said the government was in touch with Microsoft and its associates. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-In, issued a severity rating of 'Critical' for the incident. In the U.S., the White House said President Joe Biden was briefed about the situation. At the centre of this digital mayhem was CrowdStrike, a U.S.-based cybersecurity company. Its CEO George Kurtz announced later a defect was found in a Falcon content update for Windows hosts, meaning Mac and Linux hosts were not affected during the outage. Falcon is CrowdStrike's security platform. The company "quickly identified the issue and deployed a fix". Outage to outrage The CrowdStrike CEO stressed that the incident was not a cyberattack as many had feared, though he warned that "adversaries and bad actors" could still try to exploit the incident. While most might think of scammers impersonating CrowdStrike company officials, the incident was instead exploited for political gain. Users on X quickly found CrowdStrike's pro-diversity messaging and its recent posts celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. Many replied with homophobic and racist comments, blaming the IT outage on the company's DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies. Some users also posted anti-Semitic abuse targeting Mr. Kurtz; one such post spreading conspiracy theories about CrowdStrike being a "Jewish #cyberattack company" linked to Israel, recorded over 4,000 views. Founded in 2011 by Mr. Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch, and Gregg Marston, the company is based in Austin, Texas, and provides cybersecurity solutions across areas such as generative AI workflows, data protection, endpoint security, threat intelligence, real-life simulation exercises, and cloud security. Mr. Kurtz has held significant positions at McAfee, such as Worldwide Chief Technology Officer, GM, and EVP of Enterprise. He had also worked at Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. On June 24, CrowdStrike said it will be added to the S&P 500 Index. The company has around 8,000 employees and operations in over 170 countries. CrowdStrike has worked with Intel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Target, Amazon, Google, and the U.S. government. In May, CrowdStrike announced the launch of its Falcon for Defender offering, supporting Microsoft's Defender deployments, so that it could hunt the threats missed by Microsoft's own security solution. "CrowdStrike's proven AI-powered detections, enriched with industry-leading threat intelligence, identifies the threats that Microsoft Defender misses," said CrowdStrike at the time, noting that Falcon for Defender would deploy without reboots and would run "silently" along with Microsoft. Despite the partnership, CrowdStrike markets itself aggressively and does not shy away from pitting itself against rivals -- including Microsoft. On the company's website, CrowdStrike says, "Microsoft's security products can't even protect Microsoft. How can they protect you?" About Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike says, "Hard to deploy, hard to use, harder to manage." Regarding SentinelOne, its take is: "Weak coverage, can't stop breaches." About Wiz, CrowdStrike had this to say: "Incomplete CNAPP [Cloud Native Application Protection Platform] that can't stop breaches." On July 19, CrowdStrike shares fell by more than 10%, but the company is still up by 100% compared to this time last year. For the quarter ending April 30, 2024, it announced a total revenue of around $921 million. On the CrowdStrike website, Mr. Kurtz apologised to customers and partners, but only after users criticised the absence of a public apology during the early hours of the outage. Others question whether too many critical companies, sensitive organisations, and governments are delegating their security and operational needs to too few providers. Read Comments

CrowdStrike stock tumbles after update triggers global IT chaos

CrowdStrike Holdings shares fell sharply lower in early Friday trading after an update to the cybersecurity group's threat-monitoring software was linked to one of the biggest global IT disruptions on record. CrowdStrike (CRWD) said it has deployed a fix for the update to its 'Falcon Sensor' software, which affected Microsoft (MSFT) Windows systems around the world, but insisted that it wasn't linked to a "security incident or cyberattack". Related: Stocks face summer slump as tech rally fades, political risks rise The update error effectively placed hundreds of millions of computers around the world in an endless 'update' loop that left them stuck on a recovery page with only a 'Blue Screen of Death' on display. Crowdstrike CEO goes into damage control after IT crisis "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." CEO George Kurtz said in a statement. "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers". Disruptions from the update error, as well as a separate issue with Microsoft's Azure cloud services, were reported dozens of countries around the world, affecting industries from travel, healthcare, finance and media. Related: Analyst revisits Tesla stock price target ahead of Q2 earnings The direct connection to CrowdStrike, however, is likely to have a significant impact on its second half financials, and could alter the group's earlier forecast of full-year revenues in the range of $3.97 billion and $4.03 billion, which it issued last month following a solid set of first quarter earnings. "Today CrowdStrike becomes a household name but not in a good way and this will take time to settle down but does not change our positive long term view of CrowdStrike or cyber security sector," said Wedbush analysts Dan Ives, who called the event a "major black eye" for the group. "It could create opportunity for some competitive displacements but this will take time to determine the path of CIOs and companies looking ahead and related legal actions related to this outage," he added. More AI Stocks: CrowdStrike shares, which were added to the S&P 500 on June 24, were marked 12.6% lower in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $299.43 each, a move that would trim the stock's 2024 gain to around 17.3%. Rivals Palo Alto Networks (PANW) and SentinelOne (S) were trading higher in permarket, rising 1.37% and 7.75% respectively. Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks

CrowdStrike Issues Statement Following Massive Outage That Stemmed From Content Update For Windows Hosts: 'This Was Not A Cyberattack' - CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD), First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (NASDAQ:CIBR)

The incident stemmed from a flaw in a Windows update; CrowdStrike assures no impact on Falcon platform systems. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD experienced a significant decline in its stock price following an incident involving a company update that affected products from Microsoft Corporation MSFT. This resulted in widespread outages across various key sectors globally. In a statement on Saturday, CrowdStrike said it is currently assisting affected customers due to a flaw discovered in a specific content update for Windows hosts. The incident has not disrupted Falcon Complete and OverWatch services, it said. The Microsoft-CrowdStrike incident impacted businesses worldwide, including airlines, banks, media and even 911 services, and has highlighted a heavy reliance on a few key companies. "We assure our customers that CrowdStrike is operating normally and this issue does not affect our Falcon platform systems. If your systems are operating normally, there is no impact to their protection if the Falcon sensor is installed," CrowdStrike said. Also Read: Microsoft Outage: What States, Services, Companies Saw The 'Blue Screen Of Death The issue does not affect Mac and Linux hosts, it said. "This was not a cyberattack," company noted, adding that the "issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed." The company said that it is advising organizations to maintain communication with CrowdStrike representatives. "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers," the company said. According to Benzinga Pro, CRWD stock has gained over 105% in the past year. CrowdStrike apologized for the disruption and said efforts are underway to collaborate closely with all affected customers to restore systems promptly, enabling it to continue delivering essential services to its clientele. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via TrueShares Technology, AI & Deep Learning ETF LRNZ and First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF CIBR. Price Action: CRWD shares closed lower by 11.1% to $304.96 on Friday. Shares fell 0.91% to $302.16 in the after-hours session. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Read Next: Goldman Sachs Analyst Stays Course On CrowdStrike Despite Outage, Expects Strong Company Reputation To Aid Recovery Photo: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CrowdStrike Shares Trim Heavy Losses As Microsoft Announces Resolution Of Global Tech Outage: 'This Is Clearly A Major Black Eye' - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Airlines Gr (NASDAQ:AAL)

U.S. cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. CRWD is attempting to recover sharp premarket losses felt overnight and in the early hours on Friday as an update on its cloud software triggered a global tech outage. What Happened: A failed update of CrowdStrike's Falcon platform on Thursday night led to widespread disruptions in Microsoft systems, pushing critical global services such as airports, ports, financial institutions and hospitals to a standstill. The issue stemmed from a technical error in the software update, ruling out initial speculation of a hacker attack. Don't Miss: General Motors and other leaders revealed to be investing in this revolutionary lithium start-up -- allowing easy entry by launching at just $9.50 per share. This Jeff Bezos-backed startup will allow you to become a landlord in just 10 minutes, and you only need $100. George Kurtz, president and CEO of CrowdStrike, stated on X the company is "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts." Microsoft, which leverages CrowdStrike's services to enhance security for its Azure and Office365 softwares, said the underlying cause of the outage has been resolved. Microsoft, which uses Crowdstrike services to enhance Azure and Office365 security, subsequently assured that the underlying cause affecting the outage has been fixed. Trending: Commercial real estate has historically outperformed the stock market, and this platform allows individuals to invest in commercial real estate with as little as $5,000 offering a 12% target yield. What It Means For CrowdStrike: "This is clearly a major black eye for CrowdStrike," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note Friday, predicting the stock would remain under pressure. Ives noted that while CrowdStrike will need to ramp up efforts to mitigate damage over time, Wedbush's positive long-term outlook on CrowdStrike and the cybersecurity sector remains unchanged. The situation may create opportunities for competitors as companies re-evaluate their cybersecurity strategies and potential legal actions unfold, the analyst said. Market impact: In premarket trading, shares of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. were down about 12.9% by 8:30 a.m. ET, after an earlier decline of about 22% around 5 a.m. ET. Exchange-traded funds with the largest exposure to CrowdStrike Holdings include TrueShares Technology, AI & Deep Learning ETF LRNZ with a 9% allocation, First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF CIBR with an 8% weight, and REX AI Equity Premium Income ETF AIPI with a 7% share. In the hedge fund sector, Strategy Capital LLC holds a substantial 16.1% weight in CrowdStrike, while Avalon Global Asset Management, managed by Nancy Kukacka, has a 7.6% stake, according to the latest 13F filings. Business operations in the airline and shipping industries were severely affected, with United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL, Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL and American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, all temporarily grounding flights due to communication issues. Trending: Will the surge continue or decline on real estate prices? People are finding out about risk-free real estate investing that lets you cash out whenever you want. American Airlines reported at 5 a.m. ET that it had safely reestablished operations. According to FlightAware.com, Delta, American Airlines and United Airlines canceled 331, 279 and 149 flights respectively, with delays numbering 194, 211 and 164 respectively. In total, 1,071 flights within, into, or out of the United States were canceled this morning. Other cybersecurity companies gained in premarket trading, capitalizing on CrowdStrike's disruptions. SentinelOne Inc. S, Palo Alto Networks Inc. PANW and Okta Inc. OKTA saw their shares rise by 6.3%, 2.9%, and 1% respectively. While Microsoft's Windows systems were impacted, Mac and Linux hosts remained unaffected, as confirmed by CrowdStrike CEO Kurtz. Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL were up 0.9% in premarket trading. Read Next: Amid the ongoing EV revolution, previously overlooked low-income communities now harbor a huge investment opportunity at just $500. Rory McIlroy's mansion in Florida is worth $22 million today, doubling from 2017 -- here's how to get started investing in real estate with just $100 Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

How a faulty CrowdStrike update crashed computers around the world

Airlines, banks, hospitals and other risk-averse organizations around the world chose cybersecurity company to protect their computer systems from hackers and data breaches. But all it took was one faulty software update to cause global disruptions Friday that grounded flights, knocked banks and media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, retailers and other services. "This is a function of the very homogenous technology that goes into the backbone of all of our IT infrastructure," said , an assistant professor of engineering at . "What really causes this mess is that we rely on very few companies, and everybody uses the same folks, so everyone goes down at the same time." The trouble with the update issued by and affecting computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system was not a hacking incident or cyberattack, according to , which apologized and said a fix was on the way. But it wasn't an easy fix. It required "boots on the ground" to remediate, said Gartner analyst . "The fix is working, it's just a very manual process and there's no magic key to unlock it," Grenier said. "I think that is probably what companies are struggling with the most here." While not everyone is a client of and its platform known as Falcon, it is one of the leading cybersecurity providers, particularly in transportation, healthcare, banking and other sectors that have a lot at stake in keeping their computer systems working. "They're usually risk-averse organizations that don't want something that's crazy innovative, but that can work and also cover their butts when something goes wrong. That's what is," Falco said. "And they're looking around at their colleagues in other sectors and saying, 'Oh, you know, this company also uses that, so I'm gonna need them, too.'" Worrying about the fragility of a globally connected technology ecosystem is nothing new. It's what drove fears in the 1990s of a technical glitch that could cause chaos at the turn of the millennium. "This is basically what we were all worried about with , except it's actually happened this time," wrote Australian cybersecurity consultant on the social platform X. Across the world Friday, affected computers were showing the "blue screen of death" -- a sign that something went wrong with Microsoft's Windows operating system. But what's different now is "that these companies are even more entrenched," Falco said. "We like to think that we have a lot of players available. But at the end of the day, the biggest companies use all the same stuff." Founded in 2011 and publicly traded since 2019, describes itself in its annual report to financial regulators as having "reinvented cybersecurity for the cloud era and transformed the way cybersecurity is delivered and experienced by customers." It emphasizes its use of artificial intelligence in helping to keep pace with adversaries. It reported having 29,000 subscribing customers at the start of the year. The -based firm is one of the more visible cybersecurity companies in the world and spends heavily on marketing, including ads. At cybersecurity conferences, it's known for large booths displaying massive action-figure statues representing different state-sponsored hacking groups that technology promises to defend against. CEO is among the most highly compensated in the world, recording more than in total compensation in the last three years. Kurtz is also a driver for a -sponsored car racing team. After his initial statement about the problem was criticized for lack of contrition, Kurtz apologized in a later social media post Friday and on "Today Show." "We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption," he said on X. , a cybersecurity industry analyst, said this was a historic mistake by . "This is easily the worst faux pas, technical faux pas or glitch of any security software provider ever," said Stiennon, who has tracked the cybersecurity industry for 24 years. While the problem is an easy technical fix, he said, it's impact could be long-lasting for some organizations because of the hands-on work needed to fix each affected computer. "It's really, really difficult to touch millions of machines. And people are on vacation right now, so, you know, the CEO will be coming back from his trip to the in a couple of weeks and he won't be able to use his computers." Stiennon said he did not think the outage revealed a bigger problem with the cybersecurity industry or as a company. "The markets are going to forgive them, the customers are going to forgive them, and this will blow over," he said. Forrester analyst credited for clearly telling customers what they need to do to fix the problem. But to restore trust, she said there will need to be a deeper look at what occurred and what changes can be made to prevent it from happening again. "A lot of this is likely to come down to the testing and software development process and the work that they've put into testing these kinds of updates before deployment," Mellen said. "But until we see the complete retrospective, we won't know for sure what the failure was." Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. , source

CrowdStrike: All you need to know about cybersecurity giant behind global IT outage

Washington, Jul 20, 2024 -CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity company behind a massive global IT outage, is the leader in its sector, known for building software defenses for the cloud computing age and exposing Russian and North Korean threats. Based in Austin, Texas, the company was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitri Alperovitch and Gregg Marston. Both Kurtz and Alperovitch had extensive backgrounds in cybersecurity, working at companies like McAfee. Two years after its founding, CrowdStrike launched its signature product, the Falcon platform. - Top player - Crucially, the company embraced a "cloud-first" model to reduce big computing needs on customers and provide more effective protection. In particular, remote computing enables updates to be carried out quickly and regularly, something that failed spectacularly in Friday's outage when an update proved incompatible with computers running on Microsoft software. Rather than just focusing on malware and antivirus products, the founders wanted to shift attention to identifying and stopping the attackers themselves and their techniques. "CrowdStrike is one of the best-known cybersecurity companies around," said Michael Daniel, who worked as the White House cybersecurity coordinator during the Barack Obama administration. "It provides typically what we think of as sort of endpoint protection, meaning that it's actually got software running on a server, or on a particular device, like a laptop or a desktop, and it's scanning for potential malware connections to bad domain names," he said. "It's looking for behavior that might be unusual -- that sort of thing," said Daniel, who now runs the Cyber Threat Alliance. A report published this year by CrowdStrike estimates that 70 percent of attacks do not include viruses, but were rather manipulations carried out directly by hackers, who often use stolen or recovered credentials. The company's share price was down by about 12 percent on Wall Street on Friday. CrowdStrike became a publicly traded company in 2019, and in 2023 the group generated sales of $3.05 billion, up 36 percent year-on-year. Boosted by the wave of so-called generative AI, which requires the development of additional capabilities in the cloud, CrowdStrike raised its annual forecasts in June. Although its business has been booming, the group is still struggling with profitability. In 2023, it recorded a net profit of just $89 million, its first annual profit since its creation. The company's main competitors are Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne, both standalone cybersecurity firms. But cloud computing giants Microsoft, Amazon and Google provide their own cybersecurity software and are also rivals. - North Korea hack - CrowdStrike, which is also a cyber intelligence company, made headlines when it helped investigate several high-profile cyber attacks. Most famously, in 2014, CrowdStrike discovered evidence linking North Korean actors to the hacking of servers at Sony Pictures. The hackers stole large amounts of data and threatened terrorist acts against movie theaters to prevent the release of "The Interview," a comedy about North Korea's leader. The studio initially canceled the movie's theatrical release, but reversed its decision after criticism. Sony estimated the direct costs of the hack to be $35 million for investigating and remediating the breach. CrowdStrike also helped investigate the 2015-2016 cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the United States and their connection to Russian intelligence services. In December 2016, CrowdStrike released a report stating that a Russian government-affiliated group called Fancy Bear had hacked a Ukrainian artillery app, potentially causing significant losses to Ukrainian artillery units in their fight against Moscow-backed separatists. However, this assessment was later disputed by some organizations and CrowdStrike rolled back some of the claims. - Criticism of Microsoft - In recent months, CrowdStrike has criticized Microsoft for its lapses on cybersecurity as the Windows maker admitted to vulnerabilities and hackings by outside actors. Among other criticisms, CrowdStrike slammed Microsoft for still doing business in China. "You're telling the public they can't use Huawei, and they can't let kids watch dance videos on TikTok because China is going to collect intelligence," Shawn Henry, chief security officer at CrowdStrike, said last year. "Yet, the most ubiquitous software, which is used throughout the government and throughout every single corporation in this country and around the world, has engineers in China working on their software," Henry told Forbes.

CrowdStrike Global Outage: Buy the Dip or Beware?

In this video, Motley Fool contributor Jason Hall breaks down what is happening with AI cybersecurity leader CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), whether this creates an opening for competitor SentinelOne (NYSE: S), and how investors should be thinking about the stock right now. *Stock prices used were from the morning of July 19, 2024. The video was published on July 19, 2024. Should you invest $1,000 in CrowdStrike right now? Before you buy stock in CrowdStrike, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and CrowdStrike wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $741,989!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Jason Hall has positions in CrowdStrike. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CrowdStrike and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Jason Hall is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.