Thread by @ChrisLuv

A few thoughts on Tableau's acquisition by Salesforce.

Firstly, congratulations to everyone at Tableau who has worked hard to get the company where it is, and congratulations Salesforce on acquiring a truly amazing company.

An aquisition was highly likely, and so, given the consolidation in th marketplace, this doesn't come as a huge surprise.

Tableau have worked hard to build the product up to a level as an independent but it's no surprise they need to move into a large product family to continue to reach more customers.

SDFC have been interested for a while and while some may have expected a move by Amazon or Google, this perhaps makes more sense for both parties.

Tableau and SDFC are both data companies, with a close partnership. Both have a similar customer focussed mentality. As a pair they fit well together.

SDFC obviously have a strong SaaS pedigree which will help push Tableau in a space they continue to grow into with Tableau Online. Hopefully Tableau's focus on R&D can continue, and get a boost, from the aquisition given SDFC have been historically high spenders in that area.

Shared customers (and there are lots) will be very excited by the prospect of tighter integration beween the products, having worked on a number of SDFC dashboards then I too will welcome any moves towards something more seemless.

Customers without SFDC will naturally apprehensive about Tableau's future, especially while the long term vision clarifies.

We can expect though for Tableau to benefit in the long term from its new big brother, AI through Einstein being one of the most obvious routes for integration. In the short term it will immediately open up new opportunities for growth and sales in existing SDFC accounts.

I think we can be sure though that one of the things that makes Tableau special is community. The fact Marc Benihoff spoke so highly of Tableau Public speaks volumes for me, and as Francois states (tableau.com/about/blog/201…) the core elements of the community won't change.

We can expect Tableau to continue to operate broadly independently, much in the same way as other recent SFDC aquisitions such as Mulesoft.

There are many questions and of course there will be shock in the community, no one likes to see their baby get married and leave home. However, generally I see this as a necessary and positive move for Tableau.