This morning, it was announced that San Francisco-based Salesforce has reached a deal to acquire Seattle-based Tableau for $15.7 billion in stock.
Terms of the deal will see Tableau stock exchanged for 1.103 shares of Salesforce stock, based on the latter company’s average share price as of last Friday.
“We are bringing together the world’s number one CRM with the number one analytics platform,” said Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff in a statement. “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers: bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.”
Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers.”
The deal represents Salesforce’s fifth acquisition of 2019, but it is by far its largest purchase to date. It points to a growing demand for data visualization services and other new tools to keep Salesforce users engaged.
Founded in 2003, Tableau builds a range of products that help companies like Netflix and Verizon transform their raw data into actionable visualizations. Tableau builds tools to monitor campaign performance, track customer engagement, create sales projections and more.
The company has had a range of success on its own, including a 2013 IPO. The Tableau team is expected to continue operating autonomously from its Seattle office and retain its current leadership structure.
Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere see and understand data.”
Yet, Tableau predicts that an evolution of its relationship with new-parent company Salesforce will enable the company to make major moves in terms of scale. Currently, Tableau serves 86,000 companies and it is poised to grow that number.
“Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere see and understand data,” said Tableau President and CEO Adam Selipsky in a statement. “As part of the world’s number one CRM company, Tableau’s intuitive and powerful analytics will enable millions more people to discover actionable insights across their entire organizations.”
The deal also sees Salesforce gain advantageous ground in the lucrative world of data. As a result, many are drawing comparisons between this latest deal and Google’s recent acquisition of Looker, an analytics startup, for $2.6 billion.
