Workday options activity signals hedging around Silver Lake takeover rumors
Private equity firm Silver Lake is negotiating to buy HR and financial management software maker Workday in what would rank among the largest tech acquisitions ever.
Conversation activity · last 45 hours presspostscomments the crowd ↓
Every item, in order 51
Latest coverage newest 6 of 27 items
What to know
- Silver Lake is negotiating to acquire Workday for approximately $43 billion, which would rank among the largest software buyouts ever, according to Reuters sources.
- Workday stock surged 25% on the report, halting trading three times, as the company had lost over 40% from its 2024 peak amid investor concerns about AI's impact on traditional software.
- No deal is guaranteed; talks are ongoing and both companies have declined comment, though Silver Lake may bring in additional investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to finance the acquisition.
How it unfolded
-
Bloomberg, Reuters, and other outlets cover the Silver Lake acquisition talks. Stock market data shows WDAY jumping 18%+ from reports, with the stock previously down 30% from its 52-week high of $249.85.
-
Workday shares jump 25% Thursday afternoon following the Reuters report. Trading is halted three times on circuit breakers as volatility spikes.
“Workday ( NASDAQ:WDAY ) shares surged 25% Thursday afternoon following a Reuters report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire the company.”
Investing.com · Newswires ↗ -
Reuters breaks exclusive story that Silver Lake is in talks to acquire Workday, which has a market value of about $43 billion. The talks are ongoing with no guarantee of a deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.
What people are saying verbatim
“Private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire Workday, which has a market value of about $43 billion, in a deal that would rank among the largest software buyouts in history.”
Reuters · Reuters ↗ · Aug 12
“Workday ( NASDAQ:WDAY ) shares surged 25% Thursday afternoon following a Reuters report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire the company.”
Investing.com · Investing.com News ↗ · Aug 12
“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.”
Reuters sources · Reuters / Channel News Asia ↗ · Aug 12
“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.”
Reuters sources · Channel News Asia ↗ · Aug 12
“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.”
Channel News Asia · Channel News Asia ↗ · Aug 12
“The stock closed at $175.29 on August 12, down roughly 30% from its 52-week high of $249.85, leaving it well inside a range that stretched as low as $110.36 over the past year.”
Investing.com · Investing.com News ↗ · Aug 12
The conversation unedited, verbatim
3 comments claimed on the threads · 22 collected here from 2 sites · 20 voices below over time ↑
- Today
-
I bought 40 shares 3 months ago and received a ton of negative feedback on this sub and others. It’s been one of my best trades. I listened to their last 2 earnings calls and was really impressed by leadership.
-
You're not a customer of Workday as an applicant. The company you applied to is the customer. Thus your experience means basically nothing
-
Don’t PEs usually want to keep sales employees since their sole job is revenue generation?
- Yesterday
-
Sounding more and more like 250. I might split 50/50. good chance this doesnt close by the end of the year which will make tax planning easier. some people are gonna get huge tax bombs that are unavoidable.
-
Sold at 220. Sell the news I say. Rather try to get in lower if the price is announced. But I bet the anonymous source is gonna be debunked
-
That's optional (albeit default) config. I applied for a job last year and uploaded pdf resume and done, in 20 seconds. Wish that was the default
-
Damn. I have an offer from workday and they offer a lot of restricted stock units… now I’m not sure it’s a good option. If they go private what will happen to unvested stocks? Also i assume a lot of layoffs to cut cots after acquisition…
-
I just need to do basic stuff man! I am not going to customise or anything as an end user.
-
I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. Is Apple easy to use? Sure, for simple stuff. But if you want to learn more, they hold free classes for gen pop at Apple stores. I don’t think any SaaS product is so easy to use you don’t need to get trained on it, unless you’re just looking to know how to do the basic stuff
-
Tons of private equity funds are sitting on massively underwater software investments with no path to exit, so maybe they are dumb.
-
It's just insanely unintuitive. I can't ever find the information I need. I will never forgive my company for switching
-
I even rejected two offers from Wday because they wanted me to learn Espresso. Do you realize how bad that is? You can’t build an app in React ? This was 5 years ago
-
Was one of my largest positions and sold it yesterday. Had a nice gain but still bad timing.
-
You are not wrong, but you have to learn how Private Equity works. Yes, they see value and they believe this can become more valuable. But this essentially means extreme cost cutting, squeezing out all the profits from Wday, and enshittification in general. Again, this is a great move for Silver Lake but not so much Wday or users who love it so…
-
Cut employees, bundle with other products, leverage the company with eye watering debt, go public in 3-5 years at 5x return divesting to suckers, I mean investors.
-
Yeah for sure - Ashby was the nicest experience i had so far although none of them are perfect lol
-
You actually said "you didn't really answer the question", referring to certification, as if changing to "trained" was merely re-phrasing the question. Regardless, "training" is also normally not necessary for general public end users to browse a web-facing app if it's well designed. Also, your autism is leaking.
-
Same. I would prefer greenhouse, bambooHR, Ashby application forms to workday. Unfortunately, my workplace uses Workday for our careers website 😒
-
(Reuters) - Private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to acquire Workday, which has a market value of about $43 billion, in a deal that would rank among the largest software buyouts in history. https://www.reuters.com/world/silver-lake-talks-buy-workday-sources-say-2026-08-13/ #Software
-
Workday shares post best day in 10 years on Silver Lake takeover report https://www. cnbc.com/2026/08/13/workday-sk yrockets-25percent-before-trading-halted-on-report-of-silver-lake-takeover.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub Posted into Technology @ technology-thenewsdesk