CrowdStrike Holdings, which has found itself at the center of a maelstrom of controversy and conspiracy theories for the past five years, will become a component of the Nasdaq-100 later this week—and its stock is on the rise.
Shares of the cybersecurity company jumped nearly 9% in early trading Tuesday, after a late Monday announcement that it would replace Maxim Integrated Products in the Nasdaq-100 Index, the Nasdaq-100 Equal Weighted Index, and the Nasdaq-100 Technology Index before the market opens on Aug. 26.
CrowdStrike has a long history of tracking hackers, including those that carried out the 2014 infiltration of Sony Pictures, but it’s best known for being one of the first organizations to sound the alarm on Russian interference in the 2016 election (something that was later confirmed by U.S. law enforcement). After its servers were hacked, the Democratic National Committee hired the company to investigate.
That made the company something of a nemesis to Donald Trump and his most ardent supporters. Trump brought up CrowdStrike again in a 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Conspiracy theorists have focused on the company’s investigation into the 2016 hack and advanced the false narrative that a cofounder (a Russian-born U.S. citizen) is Ukrainian.
Despite these rumors, the company has a good reputation among both political parties and is one of the go-tos among corporations who experience hacks. CrowdStrike went public in 2019, soaring 70% on its first day.
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