Is Tableau an expensive deal for Salesforce?
Not really.
There aren’t that many things of true scale, that are strategic, that Salesforce could buy at this stage.
- Tableau was at >$900m in recurring revenue … growing 41% (!)
- And subscriptions were growing 115%.
Tableau Reports First Quarter 2019 Financial Results
That’s not Twilio growth, but it’s awfully strong.
And it means, if you take that growth rate and roll things forward a few years, Salesforce is buying a will-grow-into $3b-$6b business analytics business, that is already the #1 largest player in its segment.
And Salesforce doesn’t seem to screw up its bigger acquisitions. Mulesoft, ExactTarget, Commerce Cloud/Demandbase, etc. are all doing well.
So it ain’t cheap. And yes, it’s a competitive space. Tableau does not have 80% market share.
But it’s a good deal.
At least in today’s high multiple market.