Salesforce is acquiring data-visualization company Tableau in a mega $15.7 billion deal

Kimberly White / Stringer

Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff.

• Salesforce is acquiring Tableau, a publicly-traded data visualization company, for $15.7 billion.
• Tableau's price tag makes it considerably more expensive than Salesforce's last mega-acquisition of Mulesoft for $6.5 billion in March 2018.
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Salesforce is acquiring Tableau, a publicly traded company that sells data visualization software, in a $15.7 billion deal announced early Monday.

Tableau, run by CEO Adam Selipsky, has long been viewed as an acquisition target for Salesforce, which has used large scale acquisitions to build out its product suite and surge toward its long-term revenue goals.

Tableau's data analytics and visualization platform has 86,000 customers, including Charles Schwab and Southwest Airlines.

Salesforce said Tableau will continue to operate independently under the Tableau brand with Selipsky and the rest of its current leadership team in charge. The company has 4,200 employees, though it's unclear whether they will all stay.

Tableau's $15.7 billion price tag makes it considerably more expensive than Salesforce's last mega-acquisition of Mulesoft for $6.5 billion in March 2018.

Tableau's shares surged 34.17% to $168.00 in pre-market trading on Monday. Salesforce was down 4.57% to $153.90.

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