Aug 13 (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, 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 $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% this year. Investors have questioned the durability of ⁠traditional software in an era of rapidly advancing ​artificial intelligence. The stock is down over 40% 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 $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)