Currently there is no support to PREFERRED_VERSION name extend in multilib case. If defined PREFERRED_VERSION_A = "1.2.3", we also need a mechanism to define PREFERRED_VERSION_lib32-A = "1.2.3" and PREFERRED_VERSION_lib64-A = "1.2.3".
*** Bug 1339 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
There is a patch out for review to address this: http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/openembedded-core/2011-August/007804.html
Fixed in http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit.cgi/poky/commit/?id=ae213b252fb0b87ec3daaa2c78b794a3e17addb6
Verified against d31d5e5b34c889809af408aed7d4f353d0133750