Workday skyrockets 19% before trading halted on report of Silver Lake takeover

Workday shares popped more than 19% on a report that private equity firm Silver Lake is in talks to buy the human resources software maker.

Shares were briefly halted in late afternoon trading and the company's market value last topped more than $50 billion following the report from Reuters.

The discussions, citing sources familiar with the matter, have been ongoing in recent months, according to Reuters.

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 has become a major concerns for investors in Workday in recent months.

Shares have rebounded from their recent selloff, but the stock is 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 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 it forecast on AI tailwinds.

Workday shares pop on acquisition news