Outback Steakhouse parent company Bloomin’ Brands is moving to acquire 61 restaurants operated by a major franchisee that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Out West Restaurant Group, which operates Outback Steakhouse locations across the western United States, filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bloomin’ Brands has entered into an agreement to purchase Out West’s assets for approximately $26.3 million, subject to certain adjustments and the assumption of specified liabilities.
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The company is expected to serve as the “stalking-horse” bidder in the bankruptcy sale process, establishing an initial offer that other potential buyers can seek to exceed. The transaction remains subject to bankruptcy court approval.
Bloomin’ Brands also agreed to provide up to $5.5 million in interest-free debtor-in-possession financing to support Out West’s operations during the Chapter 11 proceedings, subject to court approval.
Out West intends to continue operating its restaurants throughout the bankruptcy process, according to the SEC filing.
Bloomin’ Brands said the filing would have no immediate impact on customers, restaurant employees or daily operations at the affected Outback Steakhouse locations.
The bankruptcy involves restaurants operated by the franchisee rather than Bloomin’ Brands’ corporate-owned locations.
Out West is affiliated with Cerca Trova Restaurant Group, which has operated Outback Steakhouse restaurants across several western states, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico.
The proposed acquisition could bring the franchisee-operated restaurants under Bloomin’ Brands’ control if the company prevails in the court-supervised sale process.
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Bloomin’ Brands also owns Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.

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Disney is planning to cut several thousand jobs, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Some managers at the entertainment giant have been asked to reduce costs by up to 20%, according to the people, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It marks the latest round of layoffs since CEO Josh D’Amaro took the reins earlier this year. The update comes after separate plans in April to cut as many as 1,000 employees, predominantly in the marketing department, and in September to cut about 300 employees, many in human resources and technology divisions.
Bloomberg was first to report the latest round of layoffs.
Company executives warned of the possibility of more reductions in its August earnings report.
“We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth and are evaluating a variety of levers,” D’Amaro and CFO Hugh Johnston wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to shareholders. “We are mid-stream in this work and will provide future updates on our progress.”
Disney introduced plans in August for an early retirement program for some employees.
“This is one of several actions we’re taking to reshape our organization, including involuntary staff reductions that have already begun in some areas and will continue into next year,” Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman wrote in a letter to employees on Aug. 24.
Disney had about 231,000 employees as of the close of its fiscal year 2025, which ended in September of that year, according to the company’s annual financial report.
Disney is not the only entertainment company looking to reduce costs. Netflix said in a memo last month that it would lay off roughly 6% of its workforce. Skydance , the newly combined company of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is also expected to cut staff in an effort to realize $6 billion in synergies over three years.
Disney will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Nov. 17.

Job openings surged in September, as did the number of workers who quit their positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday,while hiring also rose and layoffs dropped.
In its monthly look at labor market slack and worker mobility, the BLS reported job openings at 7.52 million, up 333,000 from August and well above the Dow Jones consensus outlook for 7.15 million.
As a share of the total workforce, the rate of job openings increased to 4.5%, up 0.2 percentage point from the prior month, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. There are now some 414,000 more job openings than workers classified as unemployed, or about 1.05 openings to every available worker.
Openings rose in manufacturing (54,000) as well as state and local government (108,000) and professional and business services (106,000).
At the same time, the total of employees leaving their jobs spiked to 3.36 million, an increase of 321,000 from August and the highest level since March 2025. Quits are considered a barometer for worker confidence in finding new jobs after leaving their prior positions.
“There are more job openings than unemployed people in the United States right now. That doesn’t solve all problems, but it’s a big change from a year ago,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “It’s an encouraging sign that despite all the headwinds right now with high diesel and gas prices and ongoing inflation problems, companies are slowly increasing their hiring.”
Hires rose on the month, up 131,000 to 5.4 million, while layoffs and discharges fell by 127,000 to 1.64 million, the lowest since March 2025.
The report comes ahead of the October nonfarm payrolls report, which the BLS will release Friday. The Wall Street consensus is for an increase of 59,000 after September eked out a gain of just 29,000, while the unemployment rate is figured to hold at 4.2%.

Bill Ackman told CNBC on Tuesday he worries that the stock market is broken, saying the rise of speculative trading is leading to wild price swings thanks to the amount of leverage in the system.
“Every number of days, I feel like markets are broken,” Ackman said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Stocks trade at prices that make no sense to me. Yes, it’s good if you’re a long-term investor and you can buy at a stupid price. I don’t think it’s good for the country generally.”
“We’re back to the casino-type markets when there was 95% leverage,” he added. “I don’t think that’s inherently good for the economy, for society, and it’s leading to these massive moves in stocks.”
The founder of Pershing Square Capital Management said those same dislocations in the market have given the hedge fund the opportunity to snag big bargains.
Pershing bought Microsoft , for example, when it was pummeled during the “SaaSpocalypse” earlier this year, and Amazon when it fell following President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Ackman said. It also bought Alphabet when the stock moved “massively” following ChatGPT’s launch, he said.
But the billionaire investor worries that the rise of one-day leveraged vehicles, perpetual futures and sports betting is dangerous for investors who are treating the stock market as a get-rich-quick scheme — an attitude that could have disastrous consequences.
“It’s good for us long term — ‘us’ being Pershing Square,” he said. “I don’t think it’s good for the country.”
Among the stocks Ackman is especially bullish on are Visa and Mastercard , which he called among the world’s “greatest” businesses, as well as streaming platform Netflix, in which he disclosed a position in August.