Salesforce to Acquire Leading Analytics Company Tableau for $15.7 Billion

Executive Summary

On June 10, 2019 Salesforce and Tableau announced an agreement under which Salesforce would acquire Tableau for an enterprise value of $15.7 billion in stock.

• The rationale for the acquisition is to accelerate customers’ digital transformations, enabling them to unlock data across the company, revealing deeper insights to make smarter decisions, drive intelligent customer experiences and accelerate innovation, according to the company. Worldwide spending on technologies and services to enable digital transformation is estimated at $1.2 trillion this year, reaching $1.8 trillion in 2022, according to IDC.
• Tableau offers a self-service analytics platform with a community of more than one million members. The company expects to report revenues of $1.4 billion this year and has 4,200 employees.
• The acquisition is expected to close during Salesforce’ 3Q ending October 31, 2019. The transaction is expected to add $350-400 million to FY 2020 revenue and reduce adjusted EPS by $0.37-0.39.
• Salesforce is enhancing its portfolio with the proposed addition of a leading business analytics and data visualization platform to its portfolio. The acquisition will add a community of customers in a broad spectrum of industries and enhance its analytics offerings, in addition to preventing the company from ending up in a competitor’s hands.