Salesforce acquires Tableau to take on Microsoft Power BI

Salesforce today announced that it will acquire Tableau for $15.7 billion in an all-stock transaction. Tableau is a leader in self-service analytics platform enabling people of any skill level to work with data. More than 86,000 organizations around the world use Tableau to understand data. Salesforce announced that Tableau will operate independently under the Tableau brand and will remain headquartered in Seattle.

Microsoft’s Power BI is a direct competitor to Tableau. In the recent years, Microsoft has added several new features to Power BI analytics platform to compete with Tableau. With this acquisition, Salesforce will compete with Microsoft in one more market.

“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.”