# S2 E7: Bonus: Hot take on Salesforce acquisition of Tableau

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2024-04-22
- **Format:** Video · 30 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Industry trends, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/s2-e7-bonus-hot-take-on-salesforce-acquisition-of-tableau
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu3qRGYoCLw

In this bonus Datum podcast episode, my co-host and I share our hot take on Salesforce's agreement to acquire Tableau for $15.7 billion. We unpack why the timing surprised us, what it signals coming off the back of Google buying Looker, and what the deal might mean for Tableau's technology, community and future direction.

## Key takeaways

- Salesforce agreed to acquire Tableau for $15.7bn against a market valuation of around $10bn, signalling significant added value and a vote of confidence in Tableau's position.
- Tableau itself grew through acquisitions of IP-rich firms like Hyper, ClearGraph, Empirical Systems and InfoActive, so being acquired is the natural next step of company maturity.
- CEO Adam Selipsky's pivot to subscription licensing helped grow Tableau's market cap from roughly $4bn to $15bn, making it both a stronger company and an attractive target.
- Google's acquisition of Looker days earlier lifted Tableau's share price about 6%, showing the market reassessing the value of remaining independent analytics players.
- The real risks to watch are ownership of Tableau's core IP and whether Salesforce's broad acquisition appetite dilutes focus, weighed against the upside of a Disney–Pixar style merger of cultures.

## Chapters

- 0:44 The news: Salesforce to buy Tableau
- 1:32 Why the timing surprised us
- 2:45 Always a bigger fish: acquisition as maturity
- 4:15 Selipsky's subscription turnaround
- 7:47 Einstein Analytics and Salesforce integration
- 9:10 Tableau's IP and acquisition history
- 10:56 Communities and conference expectations
- 17:28 Concerns: focus, ownership and shareholders
- 19:36 The Disney–Pixar merger analogy
- 21:40 Salesforce as the enterprise SaaS aggregator

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/s2-e7-bonus-hot-take-on-salesforce-acquisition-of-tableau

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena