Workday Shares Surge 18% on Silver Lake Acquisition Talks

Workday shares popped nearly 18% for their best day since 2016 on a report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy the human resources software maker. Shares were halted multiple times in late afternoon trading and the company's market value closed at nearly $51 billion following the report from Reuters. The discussions have been ongoing in recent months, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Workday and Silver Lake did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Concerns that artificial intelligence tools will upend software's business model have weighed on Workday's shares in recent months. An acquisition in the space could hint at renewed software appetite despite these fears. The stock has rebounded from a recent selloff, but shares are down 7% year over year. In March, co-founder Aneel Bhusri was renamed CEO after Carl Eschenbach stepped down. Bhusri has held various leadership roles at the company, including a stint as CEO and co-CEO. "Aneel Bhusri, the CEO, and Egon [Durban] from Silver Lake know each other well through many connections. So we think certainly this could make sense, and I think this goes back to how badly hit software's been," analyst Brent Thill told CNBC's "Power Lunch." In May, the company posted better-than-expected results and upped its forecast on AI tailwinds.