Who Owns Outback Steakhouse In 2026?

As of 2026, Aussie-themed grill chain Outback Steakhouse belongs to Bloomin' Brands, Inc., a Tampa, Florida-based restaurant company that also runs Carrabba's Italian Grill, the similarly steak-focused Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, and casual seafood chain Bonefish Grill. Across those four brands, the company runs or franchises over 1,450 restaurants across 46 states and Guam, and a range of other countries including Brazil, Canada, China, the Philippines, and South Korea. Outback is by far the biggest of those brands, with around 665 U.S. locations and another 250 around the world. The average American can get a slice of the ownership, too: Bloomin' Brands is a publicly traded company, meaning anyone can purchase stock shares in it.

Since September 2024, Bloomin' Brands has been headed up by CEO Michael Spanos. Spanos has also been in executive roles at a diverse range of companies from PepsiCo and Six Flags to Delta Air Lines, where he was Chief Operating Officer immediately before shifting to Bloomin' Brands. Spanos has been tasked with streamlining the company's operations after sales were falling around the time he took the job. This has involved selling off a sizable chunk of Brazil's Outback restaurants in order to focus on its American home turf. In U.S. Outback Steakhouses, he's also set about simplifying menus and adding technology allowing guests to pay at their tables.

Outback Steakhouse hasn't always been part of such a big corporate entity. The casual restaurant with its "No Rules, Just Right" philosophy was founded by four friends and Tampa restaurant industry entrepreneurs in 1988 (with no connection to Australia) — Robert Basham, Trudy Cooper, Tim Gannon, and Chris Sullivan. It grew rapidly and went public in 1991, at which point it had nearly 50 locations. It continued growing as it acquired other chains like Carrabba's and Bonefish Grill

Things changed in 2007 as the company (then named OSI Restaurant Partners) went from public to private, thanks to a $3.2 billion buyout led by private equity firm Bain Capital, which took on around a two-thirds stake in the company. Three of the four founders (all but Cooper) stayed on as minority investors in the new company, which was called Kangaroo Holdings. In 2012, it went public again, using the name Bloomin' Brands, a nod to the chain's much-loved Bloomin' Onion (although we'd argue that it's not the chain's best appetizer).

The founders' links to Outback Steakhouse have been fading over time: Sullivan stepped down as CEO in 2005 and left the board in 2017. Gannon left in 2012 and went on to start fast-casual chain Bolay, while Basham left in 2013, and Cooper is involved in restaurant ventures outside the company.