Private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire Workday, which has a market value of about US$43 billion, in a deal that would rank among the largest software buyouts in history, according to people familiar with the matter. Silver Lake and the human-resources and financial management software company have held discussions about a potential deal in recent months, the people said. The talks are ongoing and there is no guarantee a deal will materialize, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential. Silver Lake could bring in additional investors to finance the deal, one of the people said, which would represent one of the firm’s largest technology investments to date. The private equity firm teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Affinity Partners for its roughly US$55 billion take-private deal for video-game maker Electronic Arts last year. Neither Silver Lake nor Workday immediately responded to requests for comment. Workday’s shares have fallen about 15 per cent this year. Investors have questioned the durability of traditional software in an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. The stock is down over 40 per cent from its 2024 peak. Such a deal would be another confirmation that large technology buyouts were reemerging after several years of muted activity. Earlier this year, Thoma Bravo agreed to acquire payroll software provider Dayforce in a transaction valued at about US$16 billion. Founded in 2005 by former PeopleSoft executives Aneel Bhusri and David Duffield, Workday went public in 2012 and provides cloud-based software for human resources, payroll, finance, spending and planning. The company serves more than 11,500 customers globally, including Netflix, U.S. Bank, Johns Hopkins University and Thomson Reuters. Bhusri returned as Workday’s chief executive in February, as the company navigates growing pressure from artificial intelligence on traditional business software. --- Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Echo Wang, Matthew Lewis and David Gaffen
