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CrowdStrike Buys Two AI Security Startups

CrowdStrike has agreed to buy AI-agent security startups Fiddler AI and Dreadnode, adding monitoring and pre-deployment testing to its Falcon platform. The company has not disclosed a price, and no guidance change was given.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) said today it has signed definitive agreements to buy Fiddler AI and Dreadnode. The cybersecurity group, whose cloud-based Falcon platform protects endpoints, cloud workloads, identity and data, announced the deals at 8.37am at Fal.Con Europe in Barcelona, alongside a new AI Kill Switch.

The Wall Street Journal reported a combined price of about $495m, made up of roughly $400m for Fiddler and $95m for Dreadnode. CrowdStrike disclosed no prices, saying only that payment is predominantly cash, with some stock subject to vesting.

Closing is expected in fiscal Q4 FY27, CrowdStrike’s quarter from the 1st of November to the 31st of January, subject to customary conditions. US shares have not yet traded on the news, so there is no market reaction to measure. As of the close yesterday, CRWD stood at $241.81, down 3.44% in a fall that preceded the announcement.

CRWD.US

The logic is a full lifecycle for AI agents, software that acts on a company’s behalf, on one platform. Dreadnode, founded in 2023, runs automated tests such as jailbreaks, which get an AI to ignore its safeguards, and prompt injection, which tricks it with hidden instructions, before deployment.

Falcon Guardian, CrowdStrike’s product for securing agents at runtime, has been available since September. Fiddler, a Palo Alto startup founded in 2018, tracks and explains what agents actually did, and will be sold as Falcon Observe.

CrowdStrike’s chief executive and founder George Kurtz described Fiddler’s role this way:

Fiddler is the flight recorder for every agent: the observability to explain exactly what an agent did and why.

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike

The deals look small beside a company valued at about $247.6bn, and the releases state no effect on financial guidance. No revenue or earnings contribution was disclosed. The shares closed yesterday 15.7% below their 52-week high of $286.99, set on the 6th of October.

CrowdStrike's share price line climbs to a high in early October 2026, then slides steadily into early November.
CrowdStrike shares have pulled back from their 6 October 2026 52-week high into the 3 November announcement. Daily close, US dollars, 3 August to 2 November 2026. Source: market data.

The next catalyst is the company’s results, estimated for the 1st of December and not yet confirmed by CrowdStrike. Consensus revenue for the quarter is about $1.53bn, against about $1.47bn in the quarter reported on the 26th of August.

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