Silver Lake Reportedly in Talks to Acquire Workday, Shares Surge Nearly 30% in Record-Breaking Day

Enterprise software giant Workday (WDAY-US) is reportedly being eyed as a potential acquisition target by private equity powerhouse Silver Lake, sending its shares soaring nearly 30% during intraday trading on Thursday, April 13, 2025. The sharp volatility briefly triggered a trading halt, and the stock closed up 17.78% at $206.45 per share, recording the largest single-day gain in the company’s history since its public listing.

On that day, Workday ranked as the top-performing component of the S&P 500 index, fully recovering all losses it had incurred earlier in the year due to concerns over AI disruption. Year-to-date, its cumulative return turned positive, rising approximately 3%.

Following the acquisition rumors, the market reassessed the strategic value of enterprise software assets, driving a broad rally in tech software stocks. Cloudflare (NET-US) and MongoDB (MDB-US) both surged over 6%, Palantir (PLTR-US) and Salesforce (CRM-US) rose over 4%, while AppLovin (APP-US) and ServiceNow (NOW-US) gained more than 1.8%. The iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF (IGV-US) also climbed over 3%.

According to Reuters, citing informed sources, Silver Lake has been in discussions with Workday over a potential acquisition for several months. However, the parties have not yet reached a final agreement, and there is no guarantee the deal will be completed.

Neither Workday nor Silver Lake immediately responded to requests for comment on the reports.

Workday opened at $177.44 on Thursday and dipped as low as $174.60. After the acquisition news broke, the stock price spiked to $227.49, a nearly 30% increase from the previous day’s closing price, triggering a temporary trading halt due to extreme volatility. Although gains narrowed slightly by the close, Workday finished the session up $31.16, or 17.78%, at $206.45. In after-hours trading, the stock rose another 0.17% to $206.80.

As of Wednesday’s close, Workday’s market capitalization stood at approximately $43.3 billion. Fueled by the acquisition speculation, its market cap surged to about $50.993 billion by Thursday’s close, an increase of roughly $7.7 billion—nearly $8 billion.

Workday currently trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of approximately 58.33x. If Silver Lake ultimately proposes an attractive acquisition premium, the potential deal size could exceed Workday’s current market valuation, potentially making it one of the larger private equity buyouts in the enterprise software sector in recent years.

Workday primarily provides human resources and enterprise financial management software. Earlier this year, concerns that generative AI and AI agent tools could gradually replace traditional enterprise software functionalities led to a broad sell-off in software stocks, with Workday being one of the main victims.

However, Workday has sharply rebounded from its 52-week low of $110.36. Based on Thursday’s closing price of $206.45, the rebound is approximately 87%; if measured from the intraday high of $227.49, the gain reaches about 106%, effectively doubling the stock price from its low. Even after Thursday’s strong rally, the intraday high remains about 9% below the 52-week high of $249.85.

To address investor concerns about AI disrupting traditional software business models, Workday has been steadily integrating AI agent capabilities into its HR and financial management products in recent years, aiming to enhance platform value and solidify customer demand. Workday is scheduled to report its fiscal year 2027 second-quarter earnings after the U.S. market close on August 27, 2026.