Salesforce acquires Tableau for $15.7 billion

Salesforce today announced that is acquiring Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA). Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) will acquire Tableau in an all-stock transaction, pursuant to which each share of Tableau Class A and Class B common stock will be exchanged for 1.103 shares of Salesforce common stock, representing an enterprise value of $15.7 billion.

The transaction is intended to be tax free for Tableau stockholders (except with respect to cash for fractional shares). The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

Marc Benioff, Chairman, and co-CEO,  said Salesforce is bringing together the world’s #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform.

Tableau is an analytics platform that empowers people of any skill level to work with data. According to Salesforce, 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.

Salesforce says Tableau will operate independently under the Tableau brand, driving forward a continued focus on its mission, customers and community. Tableau will remain headquartered in Seattle, Wash. and will continue to be led by CEO Adam Selipsky and the current leadership team.

The acquisition of Tableau is expected to be completed during Salesforce’s fiscal third quarter ending October 31, 2019.

Christian Chabot, Patrick Hanrahan, and Christopher Stolte, the founders of Tableau, have all entered into an agreement with Salesforce in connection with the transaction, and have indicated that they intend to tender all of their shares in the exchange offer.