diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index ce21284b..53497bf0 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 # See LICENSE for copying information.
 
 # 'foreign' means that we're not enforcing GNU package rules strictly.
-# '1.9' means that we need automake 1.9 or later (and we do).
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign 1.9 subdir-objects
+# '1.11.2' means that we need automake 1.11.2 or later (and we do).
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign 1.11.2 subdir-objects
 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e6440341..3dc437fd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ dnl
 dnl Original version Dug Song <dugsong@monkey.org>
 
 AC_INIT(libevent,2.1.10-stable)
-AC_PREREQ(2.59)
+AC_PREREQ(2.62)
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(event.c)
 
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])