Salesforce acquires Tableau because everybody wants to be a data-star

It literally acquired DATA... Salesforce has become a software legend through acquisitions (it snagged 12 in one year), but this one's the biggest — The software-as-a-service pioneer dropped $15.7B to buy Tableau (ticker "symbol DATA") in an all-stock deal. DATA shares rose 34% because Salesforce is paying plenty to add to its menu of clouds:

• "Sales Cloud": Salesforce's OG customer relationship management (CRM) platform lets you (the salesperson) obsessively track everyone. Every. Single. Lead. And your company keeps all that data even if you leave.
• "Marketing Cloud": It's all about emails. Your company's "15% off flip flops" subject line got an open, but not a click? Marketing Cloud suggests a better option.
• A bunch of other clouds: Health Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud... Salesforce is the sales dashboard for everything.

Your worst nightmare... You get an email from Debbie (head of sales) asking to "break down adoption trends in the southwest region over Q3." Instead of bribing the engineer in your office for help, Tableau converts your raw data spreadsheet into visual charts, graphs, and data maps that make sense. From numbers to art.