To the Board of Directors and
Stockholders of Outback Steakhouse, Inc.
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related
consolidated statements of income, stockholders' equity and cash flows present
fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Outback Steakhouse,
Inc. (the "Company") at December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the results of their
operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended
December 31, 2000, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted
in the United States of America. These financial statements are the
responsibility of the Company's management; our responsibility is to express an
opinion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our
audits of these statements in accordance with auditing standards generally
accepted in the United States of America, which require that we plan and perform
the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements
are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis,
evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements,
assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by
management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We
believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
As discussed in Note 12 of Notes to the Consolidated Financial
Statements, the Company changed its method of accounting for the costs of
start-up activities in 1998.
Tampa, Florida
February 14, 2001
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