R. L. Polk Spins-Off Dealer Consulting Services

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Nov. 27 -- R. L. Polk & Co. today announced a new approach in providing dealer consulting services to support its core dealer marketing products such as PolkOne, Cross Sell and list services to meet the marketing needs of dealership and OEM clients. As such, Polk's Professional Services division that focused on in-dealership consulting and training activities will again operate as an independent business entity, PCS-Global, owned and operated by Dr. John Mlinarcik.

Polk and PCS-Global will maintain a close affiliation, combining Polk's marketing products with PCS-Global's in-dealership process experience and training services in order to increase the performance of dealer customers. PCS-Global will continue to provide consulting services for all current client relationships developed during its time as part of R. L. Polk & Co.

The decision to divest Polk Professional Services stems from an in-depth study of automotive retailers, their marketing needs and an assessment of Polk's core strengths which include collecting and analyzing data and turning it into actionable marketing intelligence for OEM and automotive retailing businesses.

``This decision is very positive for everyone involved, including R. L. Polk & Co., PCS-Global and our dealership and OEM customers,'' said Stephen Polk, chairman, president and CEO of R. L. Polk & Co. ``We are focusing our efforts around our traditional strengths -- turning data into a marketing asset for our clients. PCS-Global will continue to be a leading resource for process improvement consulting at the retail level and will be an important partner for Polk and our clients.''

``We look forward to operating as an independent yet Polk affiliate company,'' added Dr. John Mlinarcik, CEO of PCS-Global. ``We are excited to provide an even more robust and comprehensive set of dealership exclusive, human performance and process enhancement services than we have offered over the past 15 years. We have deepened our knowledge of the automotive industry, refined our product offerings, expanded our staff, added many clients and