Tableau’s Strong IPO

Researcher Visiongain’s latest report, “World Big Data Market Opportunities 2013-2018: Converging Data Architectures,” estimates global big data market to be worth $12.4 billion this year. The researcher believes that deployment of big data technologies will continue to explode in the coming years as more and more enterprises of all sizes, small and big, begin to deal with it. Today nearly 80% of the enterprises in the developed world are investing some portion of their IT budgets in handling big data. Seattle-based Tableau Software is one player helping these organizations analyze their big data.

Tableau’s Financials
Tableau Software (NYSE:DATA) was founded in 2003 by Stanford alumni and professors Christian Chabot, Chris Stolte, and Pat Hanrahan. Tableau’s analytic software is based on two key technological innovations. VizQL, or visual query language, translates drag-and-drop actions into data queries and expresses results through graphics. It simplifies the need to use software code to transform questions into pictures. Tableau is also credited with the use of a Hybrid Data Architecture, which combines the power and flexibility of Live Query and In-Memory Data Engines that give users with a faster way to connect with and analyze big data in its existing format and location.

Tableau earns revenues through licenses and maintenance-based services for their tools. It ended last year with more than 10,000 customers of various sizes and spread across industries in more than 100 countries. Customers include names like Deere & Company, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Sears Holdings Corporation, to name a few. Tableau has seen strong adoption of its tools in the recent past, and revenues have grown from $34.2 million in 2010 to $62.4 million in 2011. It ended 2012 with revenues of $127.7 million, recording annual growth of 93% over the three-year period. Over the course of these years, Tableau has remained profitable. It earned a net income of $2.7 million in 2010, $3.4 million in 2011, and ended 2012 with a net income of $1.6 million.

Tableau’s Opportunity
IDC estimates that the amount of digital data created and consumed globally will grow from 0.8 trillion gigabytes in 2010 to 40 trillion gigabytes in 2020. Apart from the need to better access and analyze this data, the current technology trends will also create the need for access of such analysis through connected devices and on the cloud. IDC estimates traditional business analytics software market to be worth $35.1 billion in 2012 with worldwide spending on business intelligence tools to be worth $12.9 billion last year. Gartner expects organizations to spend $81 billion on business analytics and related services by 2014. Surely, there is a big opportunity for Tableau.

Till recently, Tableau was a privately held company with $15 million funding received from New Enterprise Associates. Last month, the company went public by selling stock at $31 a share to raise $254 million. Tableau plans to use these funds for international and domestic market expansion.

Tableau’s stock is trading at $55.82 with a market capitalization of $3.21 billion. It touched a high of $59.60 soon after listing last month.