Arkona Inc.

announced Sept. 10 that Automotive Equity Partners (AEP) has selected Arkona to

provide services and solutions for its growing list of dealerships. AEP is

made up of investors focused on partnering with dealer candidates who lack

the capital to acquire a new car franchise on their own. They say they plan to

acquire up to 40 new franchise dealerships over the next several years.

As part of the agreement, Arkona says it will supply AEP with a dealership

management system featuring service, parts, accounting, F&I, customer

relationship management (CRM) and a suite of training and consulting

services.

"After completing our research of all the major dealer management system

vendors, the reasons to select Arkona as our DMS partner were obvious," said

Dale Hermiller, COO, AEP. "Arkona's overall solution, pricing and growing

presence in the automotive marketplace provide our dealerships with a

complete package at a reasonable price. All the tools that a dealership

needs to conduct business and take care of its customers are included and

Arkona does not require long-term contracts for our dealerships. More

importantly, I can personally access any of our dealerships just by logging

on to the Internet. The days of faxing in the daily operating summary are

long gone."

"This is a great opportunity to work closely with a business partner like

AEP," noted Rich Holland, President, Arkona. "Our goal as a partner is to

integrate our solutions to meet OEM requirements and then organize our

corporate resources and products to match the business plans of companies

like Automotive Equity Partners. The advanced tools we provide will ensure

that AEP dealerships get off to a good start and that they quickly realize

organizational efficiencies and profitability."

About Automotive Equity Partners

Automotive Equity Partners was recently formed by a group of private

investors with many years of automotive experience. AEP's business model

allows a qualified dealer candidate to acquire a minority stake in a new car

franchise and repurchase AEP's shares over time. Most dealer candidates

have at least 10% of the required capital.

About Arkona Inc.

Founded in 1996, Arkona is a public company in automotive

management solutions. For more

information visit the Arkona Web site at www.arkona.com.