IBM 1998 Annual Report Download - page 55

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To the Stockholders and Board of Directors of International
Business Machines Corporation:
In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated financial state-
ments, appearing on pages 64 through 89, present fairly, in
all material respects, the financial position of International
Business Machines Corporation and its subsidiaries at
December 31, 1998 and 1997, and the results of their opera-
tions and their cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 1998, 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 state-
ments 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, assess-
ing 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.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
1301 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019
January 21, 1999
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTANTS International Business Machines Corporation and Subsidiary Companies
53