5 ms·

CrowdStrike CEO cuts his voting power by 92% with unexplained gifts

126 points by wslh 1y ago

Calwestjobs 1y ago
[flagged]
- tananaev 1y ago
  I don't think anybody claiming it to be more important. It's just a different forum for different types of news.
- josefritzishere 1y ago
  You can just post these yourself of course.
- ta1243 1y ago
  HN is a US Site America doesn't care about Russia. Russia is a threat to Europe, not to America, and America doesn't care about Europe either. Likewise Europe doesn't care about China, and certainly countries like North Korea - China is a threat to America. Europe has many problem, many of which were caused or fanned by Russia over the last couple of decades, from the refugee crisis to brexit to German gas reliance, all of which has increased European fragmentation (which was hardly a harmonious world in 2005) and weakened the continent. I'm not sure if Europe can work together enough to respond to the challenge -- it's failed to do so so far, and pro-russian elements are gaining popularity in recent elections in Europe, from the UK to Germany to Romania. Interestingly outside of Russia's sphere of influence (Canada, Australia), elections have shown a different direction.
  - Calwestjobs 1y ago
    Brexit was Steve Bannon, Cargyll and other US companies. So if you are saying Steve Bannon is russian agent that i do not have problem with. But he works from USA. Cargyll because they wanted to get rid of European unions regulations and buy distressed UK companies. Check Cargylls economic data /news before and after brexit / vote. Brexit was successful because tools developed for USA was used / tested on UK. USA writes in English. UK writes in English. Facebook (US company) was fined for brexit. Cambridge analytica, is gone? Lessons learned, Facebooks price up. Also US individuals and US companies paying to distort results of sociological surveys done / published in European countries is well known at this point. Germany reliance on russian gas was measure for transition towards renewable sources, it was cheapest energy after renewables, even then, so why pay for other fossils? Directive 2010/31/EU, Green deal, and many other were part of post 2008 US financial crisis efforts to make Europe sustainable (not eco nonsense, but economically, these efforts were accelerated after 2019/2020. Where US scientists working in Wuhan.. just joking, or am i ? USA for example California got inspired all the time be example of Germany in all sorts of regulation. emissions on vehicles even before 2000s... Texas is second biggest deployment of PV and batteries in west. florida (red, trump state) is state with highest ratio of fully electric homes.... Soft power is very strong with this one. (US) Darth Vader: [1:55:54] The Force is strong with this one. ( "Lucas HATES europe with all his might". Which you can google and see for yourself, how strong force is with this one. )
wslh 1y ago
https://archive.is/elJzB https://archive.is/elJzB
__alexs 1y ago
Is this 1 or 2 large customers taking a massive stake to avoid the business getting sued into the ground? Or perhaps dumping equity by the backdoor because they are about to get sued into the ground?
- duxup 1y ago
  It’s classified as a gift, like a charitable donation possibly.
  - cj 1y ago
    No, when you gift anything over $19,000 (I think) you need to file a "gift tax return", and the IRS taxes the gift accordingly. Almost certainly not classified as a charitable donation.
    - yojo 1y ago
      Minor note: the overage from $19k isn’t auto-taxed, it is just recorded and counts against your $14M-ish lifetime gift tax exemption (also relevant for estate tax). In this case, he obviously blows past that limit quickly.
- _QrE 1y ago
  According to the article, the CEO sold stock, and gifted stock to at least four trusts that have, in turn, sold the stock gifted: > Subsequent filings from four trusts show that about half of his gifted shares were transferred to them. Those trusts have in turn sold most of the shares they reported receiving, netting at least $1.2 billion in proceeds so far. Seems like the CEO thinks that it's downhill from here; I'm not sure what other reason there would be to do this.
  - pc86 1y ago
    > A spokesperson for CrowdStrike said the filings reflected estate planning and philanthropic activities Estate planning is very likely code for tax avoidance. I know basically nothing about Kurtz, I would venture this is all going to family and structuring this staggering generational wealth so they don't overpay taxes.
piva00 1y ago
Rather bizarre move, can it be squared somehow with another weird move from CrowdStrike last week, the slashing their workforce with the bullshit justification it will be replaced by AI?[0] Too much of a coincidence in a short amount of time. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstrike-to-cut-jobs-and-use-ai https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstri...
- jrexilius 1y ago
  Pump the stock up a bit after the "accounting errors"?.. Seems like the CEO is trying ot slip out the door before things crash? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crowdstrike-probed-over-32m-irs-200840194.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crowdstrike-probed-over-32m-i...
- jlarocco 1y ago
  Maybe the decision was recommended by the AI?
  - bink 1y ago
    "Take a stress pill and think things over."
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
crftr 1y ago
> The drawdown in his voting stake has been so dramatic that Kurtz in December triggered a clause eliminating all of CrowdStrike’s super-voting stock... A plausible explanation.
- malfist 1y ago
  Not really. Super voting stock is just for him to retain control. This type of behavior is extremely unusual.
cj 1y ago
Gifting stock to a trust is a common way to avoid certain types of taxes in some cases. If his end goal is to simply liquidate his position, maybe the "gifting shares to trust" is just part of a tax avoidance scheme (even if it sounds illegal, it often isn't). I've seen this very commonly with private company founders expecting an exit in the next couple years, but very possible this situation is completely different. The fact that it triggered a clause to eliminate preferred voting shares is very odd. Either a complete oversight by the guy's lawyer, or if it was done intentionally, I have no idea.
- tw04 1y ago
  There's just no way a guy with that much money sells out of the controlling stake in his own company without knowing it was going to happen. The billoin dollar question is why? Seems it could only be a handful of things: Major health problem so the controlling stake won't matter. Major unannounced issue that would cause the stock to drop precipitously (on paper he'd be facing prison time, but I think we all know he won't even if true). Outside pressure, presumably from a government entity because I don't know what private party would have the juice to push him out. Outside of that, unless he's just done with the rat race, planning on retiring and just not working anymore I've got a lot of nothing. When you have as much money as he has, I don't see why you'd give up control of your baby willingly as part of "normal estate planning" at his age.
  - nfriedly 1y ago
    > Major unannounced issue... To be fair, I'm not sure it could be much worse than the major announced issues of the past few years.
    - benoau 1y ago
      Probably related to replacing 500 positions with what I can only assume will be Genmoji. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstrike-to-cut-jobs-and-use-ai https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstri...
  - 1y ago
ghc 1y ago
For all we know, the CEO could have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It's dangerous to read too much into these sales without more information, even if the situation is unusual.
- the_sleaze_ 1y ago
  It's never a sign of anything good at minimum.
mwkaufma 1y ago
Can't call a rug-pull a rug-pull when too many speculators are still too invested in this hype-cycle.
jbs789 1y ago
This could indicate many things but I’m having a hard time seeing it as a vote of confidence… Surprised the stock is up.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  Tbh I'm surprised the company even still exists at all after what they did last year.

126 points by wslh 1y ago

Calwestjobs 1y ago

[flagged]

tananaev 1y ago
I don't think anybody claiming it to be more important. It's just a different forum for different types of news.
josefritzishere 1y ago
You can just post these yourself of course.
ta1243 1y ago
HN is a US Site America doesn't care about Russia. Russia is a threat to Europe, not to America, and America doesn't care about Europe either. Likewise Europe doesn't care about China, and certainly countries like North Korea - China is a threat to America. Europe has many problem, many of which were caused or fanned by Russia over the last couple of decades, from the refugee crisis to brexit to German gas reliance, all of which has increased European fragmentation (which was hardly a harmonious world in 2005) and weakened the continent. I'm not sure if Europe can work together enough to respond to the challenge -- it's failed to do so so far, and pro-russian elements are gaining popularity in recent elections in Europe, from the UK to Germany to Romania. Interestingly outside of Russia's sphere of influence (Canada, Australia), elections have shown a different direction.
- Calwestjobs 1y ago
  Brexit was Steve Bannon, Cargyll and other US companies. So if you are saying Steve Bannon is russian agent that i do not have problem with. But he works from USA. Cargyll because they wanted to get rid of European unions regulations and buy distressed UK companies. Check Cargylls economic data /news before and after brexit / vote. Brexit was successful because tools developed for USA was used / tested on UK. USA writes in English. UK writes in English. Facebook (US company) was fined for brexit. Cambridge analytica, is gone? Lessons learned, Facebooks price up. Also US individuals and US companies paying to distort results of sociological surveys done / published in European countries is well known at this point. Germany reliance on russian gas was measure for transition towards renewable sources, it was cheapest energy after renewables, even then, so why pay for other fossils? Directive 2010/31/EU, Green deal, and many other were part of post 2008 US financial crisis efforts to make Europe sustainable (not eco nonsense, but economically, these efforts were accelerated after 2019/2020. Where US scientists working in Wuhan.. just joking, or am i ? USA for example California got inspired all the time be example of Germany in all sorts of regulation. emissions on vehicles even before 2000s... Texas is second biggest deployment of PV and batteries in west. florida (red, trump state) is state with highest ratio of fully electric homes.... Soft power is very strong with this one. (US) Darth Vader: [1:55:54] The Force is strong with this one. ( "Lucas HATES europe with all his might". Which you can google and see for yourself, how strong force is with this one. )

wslh 1y ago

https://archive.is/elJzB https://archive.is/elJzB

__alexs 1y ago

Is this 1 or 2 large customers taking a massive stake to avoid the business getting sued into the ground? Or perhaps dumping equity by the backdoor because they are about to get sued into the ground?

duxup 1y ago
It’s classified as a gift, like a charitable donation possibly.
- cj 1y ago
  No, when you gift anything over $19,000 (I think) you need to file a "gift tax return", and the IRS taxes the gift accordingly. Almost certainly not classified as a charitable donation.
  - yojo 1y ago
    Minor note: the overage from $19k isn’t auto-taxed, it is just recorded and counts against your $14M-ish lifetime gift tax exemption (also relevant for estate tax). In this case, he obviously blows past that limit quickly.
_QrE 1y ago
According to the article, the CEO sold stock, and gifted stock to at least four trusts that have, in turn, sold the stock gifted: > Subsequent filings from four trusts show that about half of his gifted shares were transferred to them. Those trusts have in turn sold most of the shares they reported receiving, netting at least $1.2 billion in proceeds so far. Seems like the CEO thinks that it's downhill from here; I'm not sure what other reason there would be to do this.
- pc86 1y ago
  > A spokesperson for CrowdStrike said the filings reflected estate planning and philanthropic activities Estate planning is very likely code for tax avoidance. I know basically nothing about Kurtz, I would venture this is all going to family and structuring this staggering generational wealth so they don't overpay taxes.

piva00 1y ago

Rather bizarre move, can it be squared somehow with another weird move from CrowdStrike last week, the slashing their workforce with the bullshit justification it will be replaced by AI?[0] Too much of a coincidence in a short amount of time. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstrike-to-cut-jobs-and-use-ai https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstri...

jrexilius 1y ago
Pump the stock up a bit after the "accounting errors"?.. Seems like the CEO is trying ot slip out the door before things crash? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crowdstrike-probed-over-32m-irs-200840194.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crowdstrike-probed-over-32m-i...
jlarocco 1y ago
Maybe the decision was recommended by the AI?
- bink 1y ago
  "Take a stress pill and think things over."

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

crftr 1y ago

> The drawdown in his voting stake has been so dramatic that Kurtz in December triggered a clause eliminating all of CrowdStrike’s super-voting stock... A plausible explanation.

malfist 1y ago
Not really. Super voting stock is just for him to retain control. This type of behavior is extremely unusual.

cj 1y ago

Gifting stock to a trust is a common way to avoid certain types of taxes in some cases. If his end goal is to simply liquidate his position, maybe the "gifting shares to trust" is just part of a tax avoidance scheme (even if it sounds illegal, it often isn't). I've seen this very commonly with private company founders expecting an exit in the next couple years, but very possible this situation is completely different. The fact that it triggered a clause to eliminate preferred voting shares is very odd. Either a complete oversight by the guy's lawyer, or if it was done intentionally, I have no idea.

tw04 1y ago
There's just no way a guy with that much money sells out of the controlling stake in his own company without knowing it was going to happen. The billoin dollar question is why? Seems it could only be a handful of things: Major health problem so the controlling stake won't matter. Major unannounced issue that would cause the stock to drop precipitously (on paper he'd be facing prison time, but I think we all know he won't even if true). Outside pressure, presumably from a government entity because I don't know what private party would have the juice to push him out. Outside of that, unless he's just done with the rat race, planning on retiring and just not working anymore I've got a lot of nothing. When you have as much money as he has, I don't see why you'd give up control of your baby willingly as part of "normal estate planning" at his age.
- nfriedly 1y ago
  > Major unannounced issue... To be fair, I'm not sure it could be much worse than the major announced issues of the past few years.
  - benoau 1y ago
    Probably related to replacing 500 positions with what I can only assume will be Genmoji. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstrike-to-cut-jobs-and-use-ai https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/may/09/crowdstri...
- 1y ago

ghc 1y ago

For all we know, the CEO could have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It's dangerous to read too much into these sales without more information, even if the situation is unusual.

the_sleaze_ 1y ago
It's never a sign of anything good at minimum.

mwkaufma 1y ago

Can't call a rug-pull a rug-pull when too many speculators are still too invested in this hype-cycle.

jbs789 1y ago

This could indicate many things but I’m having a hard time seeing it as a vote of confidence… Surprised the stock is up.

wkat4242 1y ago
Tbh I'm surprised the company even still exists at all after what they did last year.