• 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 most recent 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.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised Salesforce on the deal, and Goldman Sachs advised Tableau.

Salesforce said Tableau would 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 most recent mega-acquisition - of Mulesoft for $6.5 billion in March 2018.

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