Tableau Software

Tableau Software is a data visualization software company and a subsidiary of Salesforce. Tableau allows users to see and understand data through a self-service analytics platform that generates worksheets with graphs and charts to create a clear visual picture of complex data.

A Tableau Overview

The Tableau analytics platform

Tableau Software provides reporting, dashboarding, scorecards, ad hoc analysis and queries, online analytical processing, data discovery, business intelligence (BI) search, spreadsheet integration, and other data analytics and analysis functions. Its software is available online and via mobile devices through several products, including Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Cloud, and Tableau Prep.

Tableau Software was founded in 2003 by Chris Stolte, Pat Hanrahan, and Christian Chabot. Chris Stolte was a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University under Professor Pat Hanrahan, and Christian Chabot was in the room at Stolte's dissertation defense in 2003. Together, the three developed and patented Tableau's foundational technology called VizQL, which visually expresses data by translating drag-and-drop actions into data queries through an intuitive interface.

In 2004, Tableau got both an initial series A venture funding and its first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) contract with the database company Hyperion. From 2005 to 2015, Tableau grew rapidly, nearly doubling in size every year, and in 2013, Tableau had its IPO at the NYSE with the ticker DATA. On August 1, 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $15 billion, at which time Tableau ceased trading independently as a public company.