Silver Lake weighs $50 billion-plus takeover of Workday

Silver Lake is reportedly in talks to buy Workday in a deal that could be worth more than $50 billion. Silver Lake is discussing a possible acquisition with Workday, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks have been taking place for several months. No agreement has been reached yet. The people said a deal is not guaranteed. They asked not to be named because the talks are private. Workday shares jumped almost 18% on Thursday after news of the discussions emerged. Before the report, Workday had a market value of about $43 billion. Its shares closed at $206.45 on Thursday. That pushed the company’s value to around $51.1 billion. The stock then fell 3.8% on Friday. Silver Lake could bring in other investors to help fund the deal, according to one of the sources. The private equity firm has been involved in several large technology deals. In 2025, it joined Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Affinity Partners in the roughly $55 billion deal to take Electronic Arts private. Neither Silver Lake nor Workday commented on the talks.

Workday’s shares have been under pressure

The possible takeover comes after a difficult period for software stocks. Workday shares had fallen about 15% this year before the news broke. They were also more than 40% below their 2024 peak. Investors have been reassessing software companies as AI tools become more capable. For Workday, the question is whether customers will keep spending heavily on large software platforms. Some of the tasks these platforms handle can now be done with AI tools. That pressure has spread across the software market. Private equity firms have also been cautious about large software acquisitions this year. Buyers are having to balance slower growth against the high prices attached to established software companies. There have still been some large deals. Hg Capital agreed in January to take financial software company OneStream private for about $6.4 billion. Thoma Bravo also agreed to acquire payroll software provider Dayforce for around $12.3 billion. A Workday takeover would be much bigger than both deals.

Workday still has a big business

Workday sells cloud software for human resources, payroll, finance, spending and planning. The company has more than 11,500 customers worldwide. It also has offices in South Africa. Workday reported $9.6 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025. That was up 13% from the previous year. Operating cash flow increased 19% to $2.9 billion. The company’s growth has slowed, however. Revenue grew 16% in the previous year. Aneel Bhusri founded Workday with former PeopleSoft executive David Duffield in 2005. He returned as chief executive in February, replacing Carl Eschenbach. Workday went public in 2012. It has since become a major provider of software used by companies to manage their employees, finances and other core operations. That gives Silver Lake plenty to consider. Workday has thousands of customers and billions of dollars in annual revenue. At the same time, it operates in a software market being reshaped by AI.