VIA EDGAR
December 15, 2017
Ms. Melissa Raminpour
Branch Chief
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20549
Re: |
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated |
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Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended January 3, 2017 |
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Filed March 2, 2017 |
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File No. 000-20574 |
Dear Ms. Raminpour:
Set forth below are the responses of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (the Company) to the comments received from the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the Staff) in the Staffs comment letter, dated December 12, 2017, addressed to Matthew E. Clark, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company. For your convenience, we have repeated the Staffs comments in italics followed by the Companys response.
Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, page 50
Note 10. Commitments and Contingencies, page 57
1. We note that you disclose several legal matters beginning on page 58 and, in some instances, you indicate that you intend to vigorously defend the action and you have not reserved for any potential future payments in addition to the amounts accrued. In accordance with ASC 450-20-50, please revise future filings to clearly disclose the following information for your loss contingencies in aggregate or individually: (1) the amount or range of reasonably possible losses in addition to the amounts accrued or (2) a statement that the reasonably possible losses cannot be estimated or are not material to your financial statements.
In accordance with ASC 450-20-50, as of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 4, 2017, we expanded our disclosure to include a statement for each of our individual legal matters that either the reasonably possible losses cannot be estimated or are not material to our financial statements. In the future, should reasonably possible losses be estimatable, we will disclose the amount or range.
Please contact me at (818) 871-8327 with any additional questions.
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Sincerely, |
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/s/ Matthew E. Clark |
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Matthew E. Clark |
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Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |