$43 billion, Workday, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: WDAY) market capitalization before Reuters published its report on August 13, is the figure Silver Lake is reportedly circling in a potential acquisition that would rank among the largest software leveraged buyouts in history. Shares closed up roughly 18% that session, the company's best single-day performance since 2016; the move reached as high as 26% intraday, touching $220.50, before trading was halted for volatility several times in the afternoon.
The deal structure
Silver Lake and Workday have been in negotiations for several months, Reuters reported, and talks are ongoing with no guarantee a transaction closes. The private equity firm may bring in co-investors to help share the financing load, according to the report. That structure, if it takes shape, would make the deal one of Silver Lake's largest technology investments to date. Workday has not confirmed any of the discussions.
A buyout at a conventional takeover premium applied to a $43 billion baseline would push the total into uncommon territory for software LBOs. The company brings roughly 11,500 enterprise customers, including Netflix, U.S. Bank, and Johns Hopkins University. The reported interest also fits a broader reopening: private equity activity in large technology targets had gone quiet for several years before recent deals began to revive it.
How WDAY got here
The stock entered this news cycle more than 40% below its 2024 peak, as public-market investors discounted traditional enterprise software against AI-disruption risk. Short interest sat at 12.74% before the Reuters report surfaced, and hedge fund ownership had contracted from 70 funds in Q4 of last year to 63 in Q1 of this year.
Aneel Bhusri, who co-founded Workday in 2005, returned to the CEO seat in February to steer the company through what it describes as a rapidly evolving AI environment. The rationale a private buyer might apply, as Reuters outlines it, is that going private creates room to pursue an AI transition without quarterly disclosure pressures, a logic that has shaped other software acquisitions in recent years.
Talks remain active with no confirmed terms and no company statement. The 12.74% short base and repeated volatility halts on August 13 mark the move as speculative positioning ahead of any confirmed deal.