Salesforce to Acquire Data Visualisation Firm Tableau for USD 15.7 Billion
CRM giant Salesforce announced on Monday, June 10, 2019, that it is buying big data company Tableau Software for USD 15.3 billion in an all-stock deal, marking the biggest acquisition in the company’s history. “We are bringing together the world’s #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce. Announcing […]
CRM giant Salesforce announced on Monday, June 10, 2019, that it is buying big data company Tableau Software for USD 15.3 billion in an all-stock deal, marking the biggest acquisition in the company’s history.
“We are bringing together the world’s #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce.
Announcing the acquisition, Benioff added, “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.”
This is by far the biggest MarTech acquisition since Adobe’s USD 4.75 billion Marketo acquisition in 2018.
Tableau President and CEO Adam Selipsky announced the news on the company blog. “In 2003, Tableau set out to pioneer self-service analytics with an intuitive analytics platform that would empower people of any skill level to work with data. Our customers grew with us to form the strongest analytics community in the world. And today, that mission to help people see and understand data grows stronger,” shared Seplisky.
He added that he was excited to announce that Tableau has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Salesforce “in an acquisition that combines the #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform. By joining forces we will accelerate our ability to accomplish our mission.”
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Tableau shareholders will get 1.103 Salesforce shares, valuing the offer at USD 177.88 per share, which represents a premium of 42 per cent to Tableau’s Friday closing price. Following the acquisition announcement, Tableau shares jumped 35 per cent to USD 169.50, while those of Salesforce slipped 3 per cent to USD 156.43 in premarket trading.
Salesforce said the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, is likely to increase its 2020 revenue by up to USD 400 million.
Salesforce’s Tableau acquisition comes on the heels of Google buying analytics startup Looker last week for USD 2.6 billion.
“Salesforce’s incredible success has always been based on anticipating the needs of our customers and providing them with the solutions they need to grow their businesses,” said Keith Block, co-CEO, Salesforce, adding, “Data is the foundation of every digital transformation, and the addition of Tableau will accelerate our ability to deliver customer success by enabling a truly unified and powerful view across all of a customer’s data.”
According to Tech Crunch, this is “a huge deal for Salesforce” as it continues to “diversify beyond CRM software and into deeper layers of analytics”.
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With Tableau and Einstein together, Salesforce will deliver the most intelligent and intuitive analytics and visualisation platform for every department and every user at any company. Tableau will make both Customer 360 and Salesforce’s analytics capabilities stronger than ever, and enable the company to reach a much broader set of customers and users.
Tableau pioneered self-service analytics with an intuitive analytics platform that empowers people of any skill level to work with data. More than 86,000 organizations around the world, such as Charles Schwab, Verizon, Schneider Electric, Southwest and Netflix, rely on Tableau to help them see and understand data.
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As part of Salesforce, Tableau will be positioned to scale and further its mission to help people see and understand data. Following the acquisition close, Tableau will operate independently under the Tableau brand, driving forward a continued focus on its mission, customers and community. As part of the world’s #1 CRM company, Tableau will remain headquartered in Seattle, Wash. and will continue to be led by CEO Adam Selipsky and the current leadership team.
