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How Salesforce Can Gain from $15.3 bn Tableau Acquisition

Salesforce announced its buying analytics platform Tableau for $15.7 billion dollars in an all-stock deal.

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Soon after Google announced buying analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion, Salesforce today announced its buying analytics platform Tableau for $15.7 billion dollars in an all-stock deal.

The US-based cloud-based software company mainly deals in customer-relationship management (CRM) service. Tableau, meanwhile, uses self-service analytics to help people with any skill level work with data. The deal could mean that Salesforce would become more of a one-stop destination that will rival against the likes of Microsoft and Google that markets a variety of enterprise software and services.

As Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce asserts, “We are bringing together the world’s #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform. 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.”

Salesforce to supercharge Digital Transformation

With Tableau, Salesforce will play an even greater role in driving digital transformation, enabling companies around the world to tap into data across their entire business and surface deeper insights to make smarter decisions, drive intelligent, connected customer experiences and accelerate innovation.

“Salesforce’s incredible success has always been based on anticipating the needs of our customers and providing them the solutions they need to grow their businesses,” said Keith Block, co-CEO, Salesforce. “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.”

Companies of every size and industry are transforming how they do business in the digital age—customers and data are at the heart of those transformations. This creates an incredible opportunity for Salesforce and Tableau, as IDC projects worldwide spending on technologies and services that will enable digital transformation to reach $1.8 trillion in 2022.

With Customer 360, only Salesforce can provide companies with a complete, intelligent view of their customers across every touchpoint—sales, service, marketing, commerce and more. Salesforce pioneered AI for CRM with Salesforce Einstein, and today delivers AI-powered analytics for sales and marketing.

With Tableau and Einstein together, Salesforce will deliver the most intelligent and intuitive analytics and visualization 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.

Where Tableau stands as Part of the deal

Tableau pioneered self-service analytics with an intuitive analytics platform that empowers people of any skill level to work with data.

Tableau has about 86,000 business customers, including Charles Schwab, Verizon, Schneider Electric, Southwest and Netflix. Salesforce said Tableau will operate independently and under its own brand post-acquisition. It will also remain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, headed by CEO Adam Selipsky along with others on the current leadership team

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.

“Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere see and understand data,” said Adam Selipsky, President and CEO of Tableau. “As part of the world’s #1 CRM company, Tableau’s intuitive and powerful analytics will enable millions more people to discover actionable insights across their entire organizations. I’m delighted that our companies share very similar cultures and a relentless focus on customer success. I look forward to working together in support of our customers and communities.”

A Shared Commitment 

Salesforce and Tableau share a deep commitment to empowering their communities, enabling people of every skill level to transform their businesses, their careers, and their lives through technology.

Salesforce has a growing community of more than 1.4 million Trailblazers, and the Tableau Community consists of more than 1 million passionate data enthusiasts.Together, the two communities will represent the largest group of digital business experts in the world—millions of people understanding and transforming the world through data.

The transaction is expected to increase Salesforce’s FY20 total revenue by approximately $350 million to $400 million, according to a statement released by the company.

The deal is the biggest acquisition by Salesforce and will allow it to add more value to its customer relationship management (CRM) offering. Salesforce’s previous largest acquisition was its $6.5 billion purchase of application network platform provider Mulesoft that closed early last year.

The acquisition can help Salesforce reach its target revenue of $28 billion a year by fiscal 2023.

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Sohini Bagchi
Sohini Bagchi is Editor at CXOToday, a published author and a storyteller. She can be reached at [email protected]