Autobytel Names George Roletter VP, Website Operations; Former Leader of AOL Studio Operations to Implement Transformation of Company's Web Offerings.

IRVINE, Calif. -- Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq:ABTL) today announced that George Roletter has been named to the newly created position of vice president, website operations. Roletter, former leader of America Online's Studio operations, is charged with the implementation of new Autobytel CEO Jim Riesenbach's mission to transform the company's network of popular automotive research and buying sites to provide the online automotive industry's most comprehensive and valuable consumer experiences.

Roletter will have responsibility for all operational aspects of Autobytel's websites, including design, production, content development, and analytics.

"Having worked with George at AOL for a number of years, I know exactly what he'll bring to our company -- and that is a passion for innovative consumer products and online businesses, as well as an extensive track record of building and launching ground-breaking products and initiatives," said Riesenbach. "George's operational expertise will be critical in our goal of leading the next wave of the Automotive Internet, specifically by delivering more innovative, useful products and tools to our websites, and by ramping up our cutting-edge initiatives in emerging areas such as video and podcasting."

As leader of operations at AOL Studio, Roletter managed the AOL programming product roadmap, productions and maintenance, leading a 150-member team to manage products, web development, content, photography, and video operations. Roletter was responsible for the production team that transitioned the company's online experiences, from a closed subscription environment to a broad-based web model, through the re-launch of AOL.com. More specifically, he oversaw the design, launches and production management for more than 50 of AOL's top entertainment, e-commerce and Search sites, including AOL Search, News, Sports, Entertainment, Shopping, Kids/Teens, and Personal Finance.

Roletter says he's looking forward to drawing on his AOL consumer product experience to help fulfill the Company's mandate to be the industry's leading online automotive media company. "Autobytel has a great foundation on two important sides of the auto buying equation ... the consumer and the auto dealer," said Roletter. "I look forward to providing benefits on both sides of that equation as the Web team works to create the industry's best online automotive consumer experience."

Prior to his most recent role at AOL Studio, Roletter served as director, online productions for the company, leading a 70-person team to design, launch, and maintain AOL's news, sports, lifestyle and learning e-commerce, Search and message board sites. He also led the execution of original productions for AOL's streaming video product, Video@AOL and AOL's programming verticals. Earlier, as executive producer at AOL, he designed, produced and launched Calendar, Kids Only, Sports, Weather, and the 100M Mutual Fund, and Brokerage centers.

Roletter previously held product positions at Citylynx, LLC and Verizon.

About Autobytel Inc.

Autobytel Inc. (Nasdaq:ABTL) is one of the largest online automotive marketplaces, empowering consumers to make smart vehicle choices using objective automotive data and insightful interactive editorial content. The result is a convenient car-buying process backed by a nationwide network of dealers who are committed to providing a positive consumer experience. Every day consumers choose Autobytel-owned and operated websites -- Autobytel.com, Autoweb.com, CarSmart.com, Car.com, AutoSite.com, Autoahorros.com, and CarTV.com -- to facilitate their car-shopping decisions. Autobytel's ability to attract millions of highly qualified, in-market car buyers and connect them with retailers has made it a leader in facilitating the entire customer car-buying lifecycle.

The Company's innovative marketing, advertising, data and CRM products, including its Web Control(R) customer management system, Retention Performance Marketing (RPM(R)) service reminder program, Special Finance Leads(SM), and AIC(R) data center, are designed to enable dealers to offer a premium consumer experience. Since pioneering pro-consumer online automotive content and purchasing in 1995, Autobytel has helped more than twenty-seven million car buyers, generating billions of dollars in car sales for dealers.