Delta hires high-powered attorney to seek damages from CrowdStrike, Microsoft over outage

Delta Air Lines is looking to potentially sue CrowdStrike and Microsoft for compensation after losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to disruptions in operations from the widespread outages linked to the two firms earlier this month.

A source confirmed to FOX Business Delta has hired prominent attorney David Boies, chairman of Boies Schiller Flexner, to pursue possible damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. The news was first reported by CNBC. 

The law firm declined to comment, and Delta said it had nothing further to add.

Companies across the globe were affected when a faulty CrowdStrike software update July 19 caused Microsoft Windows computers and systems to crash, crippling operations across the economy in sectors from transportation to health care to finance.

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The outage temporarily halted the airline industry, but Delta was hardest hit. Its operations were down for nearly a week while rivals were able to get back up and running after a day or two.

Delta Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant explained in a video update to customers last week that 60% of the airline's "most critical applications that run the airline" are on Microsoft Windows, and "all of them were rendered inoperable" on the morning of the outage.

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The cyber outage led to more than 2,200 flight cancellations July 19, and Delta has canceled over 6,000 flights so far since then. According to CNBC, Delta is now dealing with more than 176,000 refund or reimbursement requests, and the outages were estimated to cost the airline as much as $500 million.

CrowdStrike's stock, which had more than doubled in 2023, has fallen over 24% since the outage, leading to a loss of over $20 billion in market valuation.

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Many clients are considering slowing or pausing spending on CrowdStrike and expecting pricing concessions, according to a survey by Evercore ISI.

FOX Business' Daniella Genovese and Reuters contributed to this report.