diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
index dd86b17a53ab8b98e257f8827df2290f5dad1f10..6b152f786311decc2206e2dd657260b18cb88873 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
@@ -41,10 +41,17 @@ class ArpackNg(Package):
 
     depends_on('blas')
     depends_on('lapack')
+    depends_on('automake')
+    depends_on('autoconf')
+    depends_on('libtool@2.4.2:')
+
     depends_on('mpi', when='+mpi')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         # Apparently autotools are not bootstrapped
+        # TODO: switch to use the CMake build in the next version
+        # rather than bootstrapping.
+        which('libtoolize')()
         bootstrap = Executable('./bootstrap')
 
         options = ['--prefix=%s' % prefix]