IBM 1997 Annual Report Download - page 41

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report of independent accountants
International Business Machines Corporation
and Subsidiary Companies
To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of International Business Machines Corporation:
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated financial statements, appearing on pages 50 through 77, present fairly,
in all material respects, the financial position of International Business Machines Corporation and its subsidiaries at
December 31, 1997 and 1996, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 1997, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles. 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 generally
accepted auditing standards, 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 the opinion expressed above.
Price Waterhouse LLP
1177 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
January 19, 1998
39