Salesforce.com Inc has agreed to buy Tableau Software Inc in an all-stock deal valued at $15.3bn in a major bid to build its analytics offering.
The takeover of Tableau will be Salesforce’s largest deal to date, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Co-chief executive officers Marc Benioff and Keith Block have been chasing new markets to reach an annual revenue goal of $26bn to $28bn by fiscal year 2023.
Tableau will remain headquartered in Seattle and will continue to be led by CEO Adam Selipsky, a former Amazon.com Inc executive who has been transitioning Tableau’s software tools to cloud-based subscriptions. Each share of Tableau Class A and Class B common stock will be exchanged for 1.103 shares of Salesforce common stock, the companies said in a statement yesterday. The deal price represents premium of 42% to Tableau’s closing price on Friday.
Known for its chart applications and analytics dashboards, Tableau has been broadening its product line to include data cleanup and machine learning tools, enabling it to compete in the wider data-warehousing.
Salesforce sees the deal cutting its full year adjusted earnings per share outlook by 37 cents to 39 cents to $2.51 to $2.53 a share. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is serving as exclusive financial adviser to Salesforce and Goldman Sachs is serving as exclusive financial adviser to Tableau. Salesforce shares were down 4.4% in early trading in New York.