Tableau Software

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American data visualization software company

title: "Tableau Software" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["salesforce", "companies-formerly-listed-on-the-new-york-stock-exchange", "data-and-information-visualization-software", "business-software-companies", "data-analysis-software", "business-intelligence-companies", "software-companies-based-in-seattle", "data-companies", "2013-initial-public-offerings", "american-companies-established-in-2003", "software-companies-established-in-2003", "2003-establishments-in-california", "2019-mergers-and-acquisitions", "software-companies-of-the-united-states", "wallingford,-seattle"] description: "American data visualization software company" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tableau_Software" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American data visualization software company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameTableau Software, LLC
logoTableau_logo.svg
logo_size250px
imageTableau Public desktop.png
image_captionScreenshot of Tableau Desktop Public Edition 2025, one of the company's pinnacle products.
typeSubsidiary
traded_as(2013–2019)
founders
key_people
industrySoftware
products
homepage
foundation, in Mountain View, California, U.S.
location_citySeattle, Washington
location_countryU.S.
revenue(2018)
operating_income− (2018)
net_income− (2018)
assets(2018)
equity(2018)
num_employees4,181 (2018)
parentSalesforce
footnotes
::

| name = Tableau Software, LLC | logo = Tableau_logo.svg | logo_size = 250px | image = Tableau Public desktop.png | image_caption = Screenshot of Tableau Desktop Public Edition 2025, one of the company's pinnacle products. | type = Subsidiary | traded_as = (2013–2019) | founders = | key_people = | industry = Software | products = | homepage = | foundation = , in Mountain View, California, U.S. | location_city = Seattle, Washington | location_country = U.S. | revenue = (2018) | operating_income = − (2018) | net_income = − (2018) | assets = (2018) | equity = (2018) | num_employees = 4,181 (2018) | parent = Salesforce | footnotes =

Tableau Software, LLC is an American interactive data visualization software company focused on business intelligence. It was founded in 2003 in Mountain View, California, and is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, the company was acquired by Salesforce for $15.7 billion. At the time, this was the largest acquisition by Salesforce (a leader in the CRM field) since its foundation. It was later surpassed by Salesforce's acquisition of Slack.

The company's founders, Christian Chabot, Pat Hanrahan and Chris Stolte, were researchers at the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. They specialized in visualization techniques for exploring and analyzing relational databases and data cubes, and started the company as a commercial outlet for research at Stanford from 1999 to 2002.

Tableau products query relational databases, online analytical processing cubes, cloud databases, and spreadsheets to generate graph-type data visualizations. The software can also extract, store, and retrieve data from an in-memory data engine.

Software products

Tableau products include:

  • Tableau Desktop
  • Tableau Server
  • Tableau Prep Builder (released in 2018)
  • Tableau Vizable (consumer data visualization mobile app released in 2015)
  • Tableau Public (free to use)
  • Tableau Reader (free to use)
  • Tableau Mobile
  • Tableau Cloud
  • Tableau Prep
  • Tableau CRM
  • Tableau Bridge
  • Tableau Pulse

Functionalities

| width = 200 | image1 = Global Temperatures Server.png | alt1 = 2 | image2 = Sales Dashboard Full screen v2.png | alt2 = 3 | image3 = Executive Salesforce Sales Summary.png | alt3 = 4 | footer = Some visualizations created by Tableau Software

Tableau offers drag and drop and other features such as multiple chart formats and mapping capabilities.

Map functionalities

The software is able to plot latitude and longitude coordinates and connect to spatial files like Esri Shapefiles, KML, and GeoJSON to display custom geography. The built-in geo-coding allows for administrative places (country, state/province, county/district), postal codes, US Congressional Districts, US CBSA/MSA, Area Codes, Airports, and European Union statistical areas (NUTS codes) to be mapped automatically. Geographies can be grouped to create custom territories or custom geocoding used to extend existing geographic roles in the product.

Data sources

Tableau Software can connect to data sources such as regular text files (.txt, .csv), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx), Microsoft Access (.accdb), import from Tableau workbook (.tbm), Oracle Database, Tableau Table data Extract (.tds) and many other types. It also allows to connect to data using multiple pre-built connectors.

Data type

Tableau automatically detects data types and fields. Tableau will make use of the data type that the data source has defined if it exists, or it will choose a data type if the data source does not specify one. In Tableau, the following data types are supported

  • Text (string) Value
  • Date Value
  • Date and Time Value
  • Numerical Value
  • Geographic Values (Latitude and longitude used for maps)
  • Boolean Values (True / False Conditions)
  • Image role (used with image link URLs)
  • Cluster Group (used with Find Clusters in Data)
  • Timestamp

History

While at Stanford, founders Hanrahan and Stolte, as well as Diane Tang, created the predecessor to Tableau, named Polaris; Polaris was a data visualization software tool, built with the support of a United States Department of Energy defense program, the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). ASCI was formed to facilitate the simulation and modeling of nuclear weapons.

Tableau was formally founded in January 2003 by Pat Hanrahan, Christian Chabot, and Chris Stolte, and moved its headquarters to the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, the following year. The company has since expanded its Fremont headquarters and announced plans in 2016 for an auxiliary campus in suburban Kirkland, Washington. A new headquarters building opened near Gas Works Park in Wallingford in March 2017 and was followed by a new building in Fremont that opened in 2018.

In August 2016, Tableau announced the appointment of Adam Selipsky as president and CEO, effective September 16, 2016, replacing co-founder Christian Chabot as CEO.

In June 2018, Tableau acquired Empirical Systems, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based artificial intelligence startup, with plans to integrate the company's technology into the Tableau platform. Tableau also announced plans to establish an office in Cambridge as a result of the deal.

On June 10, 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in an all-stock deal worth $15.7 billion, being the largest acquisition in Salesforce's history at the time.

In March 2021, Tableau announced the appointment of Mark Nelson as president and CEO, replacing Adam Selipsky. Current CEO of Tableau is a longtime Salesforce exec Ryan Aytay.

Notable Tableau employees include Jock Mackinlay and computer scientist and author Leland Wilkinson.

Finances

On May 17, 2013, Tableau launched an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, raising more than $250 million. Prior to its IPO, Tableau raised over $45 million in venture capital investment from investors such as the NEA and Meritech.

Tableau's revenue grew significantly from 2010 through 2013, reporting $34.2 million in 2010, $62.4 million in 2011, $127.7 million in 2012, and $232.44 million in 2013. Profit from 2010 to 2012 was $2.7 million, $3.4 million, and $1.6 million, respectively.

WikiLeaks and policy changes

On December 2, 2010, Tableau deleted WikiLeaks' visualizations about the United States diplomatic cables leak, stating it was due to direct political pressure from US Senator Joe Lieberman.

On February 21, 2011, Tableau posted an updated data policy. The accompanying blog post cited the two main changes as (1) creating a formal complaint process and (2) using freedom of speech as a guiding principle. In addition, the post announced the creation of an advisory board to help the company navigate future situations that "push the boundaries" of the policy.

References

References

  1. (February 22, 2019). "2018 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  2. Patrizio, Andy. (2021-10-08). "Top Data Visualization Tools".
  3. Rhodes, Margaret. "A Dead-Simple Tool That Lets Anyone Create Interactive Maps".
  4. Hardy, Quentin. (13 June 2014). "Tableau Software Helping Data Become More Visual".
  5. Levy, Nat. (2019-08-01). "Salesforce completes $15.7B acquisition of Tableau Software, creating new enterprise tech force".
  6. (2019-06-11). "세일즈포스, 빅데이터 분석업체 태블로 18조원에 인수".
  7. (2020-12-01). "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack".
  8. (5 March 2010). "How To Get a 20 Million Dollar Pre-Money Valuation for Series A: Tableau Software CEO Christian Chabot (Part 3)". One MIllion by One Million by Sramana Mitra.
  9. "Christopher R. Stolte: Ph.D. Candidate @ Stanford". Graphics.stanford.edu.
  10. "Difference between products".
  11. "Tableau Desktop Pricing".
  12. Murray, Daniel. (2013). "Tableau Your Data". Wiley.
  13. Locker, Brandi. (2021). "Maximizing Tableau Server". Packt.
  14. "Project Maestro". Tableau Software.
  15. "Tableau: Business Intelligence and Analytics Software".
  16. "Tableau Mobile".
  17. "Tableau Mobile – Apps on Google Play".
  18. "Tableau Cloud".
  19. Allchin, Carl. (2020-08-03). "Tableau Prep: Up & Running". "O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
  20. Dignan, Larry. (2020-10-06). "Tableau integrates Einstein Analytics, becomes the analytics bridge in Salesforce ecosystem".
  21. "Tableau Bridge".
  22. "Maps".
  23. (2022-08-15). "Best Dashboard Visualization Tools According to 30 Experts {{!}} Databox Blog".
  24. "Create Tableau Maps from Spatial Files".
  25. "Plotting Geographic Data Using Custom Longitude and Latitude Values | Tableau Software".
  26. "Create Territories on a Map".
  27. "Custom Geocode Your Data".
  28. "Supported Connectors".
  29. Murray, Daniel G.. (2016). "Tableau Your Data". Wiley.
  30. "Polaris: Database and Data Cube Visualization".
  31. (January 2002). "Polaris: a system for query, analysis, and visualization of multidimensional relational databases". IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.
  32. (2000-01-01). "Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Program Plan [FY2000]".
  33. Levy, Ari. (May 16, 2013). "Seattle's Tableau raises $254M in year's biggest tech IPO". The Seattle Times.
  34. Huang, Gregory T.. (8 September 2008). "Tableau Raises $10M in Second Venture Round, Wants To Be the "Adobe of Data"". Xconomy.
  35. Lerman, Rachel. (January 13, 2016). "Tableau confirms big Kirkland expansion, plans to hire 1,000". The Seattle Times.
  36. Coombs, Casey. (March 23, 2018). "Tableau Software opens 110,000-square-foot Fremont building". [[Puget Sound Business Journal]].
  37. Lerman, Rachel. (22 August 2016). "Seattle Times".
  38. (13 June 2018). "Tableau gets AI shot in the arm with Empirical Systems acquisition – TechCrunch".
  39. (2018-06-13). "Tableau acquires MIT AI spinoff Empirical Systems, opens new R&D center in Boston area". GeekWire.
  40. "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Tableau".
  41. Avidon, Erik. (24 March 2021). "Tech Target".
  42. "Ryan Aytay named new CEO of Tableau, filling vacant slot {{!}} TechTarget".
  43. (2022). "News". Significance.
  44. "Phillip E. Carter".
  45. Pisani, Bob. (17 May 2013). "Big Data's IPO: Tableau Software Is a Big One".
  46. Lunden, Ingrid. (May 17, 2013). "Big Data Analytics Specialist Tableau Software Raises $254M In IPO". TechCrunch.
  47. . ["Financial Statements for Tableau Software Inc - Google Finance"](https://www.google.com/finance/?fstype=ii&ei=Mj9XU8jtJ8iOiAKGwQE). *[[Google Finance]]*.
  48. "Forms S-1". SEC.
  49. (December 3, 2010). "WikiLeaks cables visualisation pulled after pressure from Joe Lieberman". The Guardian.
  50. Fink, Elissa. (December 2, 2010). "Why we removed the WikiLeaks visualizations". Tableau Software.
  51. (2011-02-21). "The Data is In: New Policy & Advisory Board for Tableau Public". Tableau Software.
  52. Fink, Elissa. (February 21, 2011). "The Data is In: New Policy & Advisory Board for Tableau Public". Tableau Software.
  53. Kosara, Robert. (February 22, 2011). "Tableau Public's New Data Policy". EagerEyes blog.

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