Software Firm Hires New CEO -- WSJ

By Jay Greene 

Tableau Software Inc., a maker of data-visualization software whose stock tumbled earlier this year on a sluggish sales outlook, hired a former Amazon.com Inc. executive as its new president and chief executive.

Tableau named Adam Selipsky, 49 years old, to run the Seattle company. Mr. Selipsky previously ran sales and marketing at Amazon Web Services, the retailer's unit that rents computing time and storage to other companies.

Mr. Selipsky succeeds Christian Chabot, Tableau's co-founder and current CEO. Mr. Chabot, 44, will remain chairman of Tableau's board.

Tableau is among several business-software makers having trouble living up to investor expectations. Its shares are down 42% so far this year; they fell by nearly half in one day in February when Tableau reduced its projected revenue for the year.

Brent Thill, an analyst with UBS Group AG, lauded Tableau's technology, but said it has struggled to close big, complex deals with large corporations. He believes Mr. Selipsky's experience at Amazon should help Tableau address the problem.

"Who's the darling in tech? It's AWS," Mr. Thill said. Tableau "just hired a top guy from them."

In after-hours trading Monday, Tableau shares rose 6% to $58.01.

Mr. Selipsky has worked for AWS for more than a decade before stepping down earlier this month. Before that, he was an executive at RealNetworks Inc., a Seattle company that sells internet streaming technology and services.

While Tableau is an AWS partner, last year the retail giant began to encroach on Tableau's turf, unveiling its own data-analytics tool, called Amazon QuickSight. At the time, Mr. Selipsky told The Seattle Times that Amazon is "selectively targeting" niches where its customers want more capability.

Mr. Chabot, who founded Tableau in 2002 with Chris Stolte and Pat Hanrahan, has served as the company's CEO for 14 years. In a statement, the company said that Mr. Chabot will continue to "assist the company with long-term strategy and customer evangelism."

Write to Jay Greene at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 23, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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