“I am the danger. I am the one who knocks.” -Paul Singer, probably, after barging into Workday’s C-Suite.

Like Walter White in Breaking Bad, Elliott refuses to take no for an answer. They don’t come in with friendly suggestions or “constructive dialogue.” They show up with a giant stake, a laundry list of demands, and the energy of a high school principal who just caught you vaping in the bathroom. And Workday? Yeah… they just f***ed around and found out.

It turns out that Elliott quietly bought up more than $2 billion worth of Workday stock, making them one of the company’s biggest shareholders. On paper, the activist shop praised CEO Carl Eschenbach and CFO Zane Rowe for building a strong business (translation: “we don’t hate you… yet”), but history says this is just the first act of the play. The stock ripped nearly 9% when news broke, because every hedge fund and retail trader knows the script by heart: Elliott knocks, management either gets onboard or gets shoved aside, and most importantly, shareholders usually get richer.

Meanwhile, Workday tried to play offense by announcing a $1.1 billion deal to buy AI startup Sana (its third AI acquisition in two months) alongside a new $4B buyback. To Elliott, it’s almost like Workday is nervously saying, “Look, Walt, we’re cooking too! We can do this!” And you can practically hear Paul Singer muttering, “That’s cute. Keep cooking, but now you’re cooking for me.”

(Source: Seeking Alpha)

Obviously, Workday isn’t the first poor soul to open the door and find Heisenberg standing there. Remember Pinterest in 2022? Then there was Crown Castle, Southwest Airlines, NRG Energy… even PayPal and PepsiCo found themselves staring across the table at Paul Singer. While they might all be different industries… it’s almost always the same story. Elliott shows up, says “say my name,” and the stock jumps because everyone already knows how this episode ends.

So what’s going on with Workday right now? The stock’s down 13% this year, and they’re getting tossed around by Oracle, SAP, and every AI-first startup trying to get a piece of the HR industry. So even before Elliott stormed in like they own the lease, Workday was panic-buying everything in front of them to keep pace… snapping up Flowise, Paradox, and most recently dropping $1.1 billion on Sana.



Three AI deals in a month isn’t nothing, but to Elliott, it’s too little, too late. And if history is any guide, Carl Eschenbach might want to freshen up his resume… because when Heisenberg shows up, management rarely makes it through the season.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in PepsiCo as mentioned in the article.