Why Salesforce bought Tableau for $15.7B ?

With the data capturing and automation is on full swing and data is said to be the new oil and growth to help enterprises, Salesforce is buying Tableau for $15.7 billion in an all-stock deal.

The company said, and so the $15.7 billion figure is the enterprise value of the transaction, based on the average price of Salesforce’s shares as of June 7, 2019. This is a huge jump on Tableau’s last market cap: it was valued at $10.79 billion at close of trading Friday.

Both the boards have already approved the deal, Salesforce notes. The two companies’ management teams will be hosting a conference call at 8am Eastern and I’ll listen in to that as well to get more details. This will diversify beyond CRM software and into deeper layers of analytics and will also help Salesforce extend its engagement (and data intelligence) for the customers that Salesforce already has — something what LinkedIn/Microsoft also helped it to do.

We are bringing together the world’s No. 1 CRM with the No.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,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce, in a statement. “I’m thrilled to welcome Adam and his team to Salesforce.

Tableau has about 86,000 business customers, including Charles Schwab, Verizon (which owns TC), Schneider Electric, Southwest and Netflix. Salesforce said Tableau will operate independently and under its own brand post-acquisition. The headquarter will be at Seattle, Wash and headed by CEO Adam Selipsky along with others on the current leadership team.

“Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere see and understand data,” said Selipsky. “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.”

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.To complement , 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.