DealerTrack Holdings Inc., which makes software for automobile retailers, agreed to acquire South Jordan-based Arkona Inc. for $58.9 million to add computer systems for managing dealerships to its line of products.
DealerTrack, based in Lake Success, N.Y., agreed to pay $1.38 a share, a premium of about 3 percent over Arkona's closing price Thursday. Arkona's stock has more than doubled this year.
If completed, it will be the fifth acquisition in the past 16 months for DealerTrack, which has been buying smaller providers of services to automobile dealers since it first sold shares to the public in December 2005.
The companies said in a press release that the transaction has been structured as a cash tender offer for all of Arkona's outstanding capital stock. DealerTrack plans to start the offer Tuesday.
The deal has been unanimously approved by each company's board of directors, the release said, and Arkona stockholders who own approximately 30 percent of its outstanding shares have committed to tender their shares in the offer.
Shares of DealerTrack rose 16 cents to close at $32.85 Friday on Nasdaq. They had risen 46 percent in the past year before Friday. Arkona shares rose 1 cent to $1.35 in over-the-counter trading.