Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie has acquired an equity stake of slightly less than 5 percent in TV Tokyo Corp., the broadcaster announced Thursday.
TV Tokyo, one of the nation's five major commercial TV stations, said it believed the acquisition was for investment and not an attempt to take the broadcaster over.
"We want him to help nurture our company as a friendly shareholder," a TV Tokyo spokesman said.
The high-profile entrepreneur made headlines earlier this year when Internet portal Livedoor attempted a hostile takeover of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc.
Livedoor later gave up the bid, which was believed to have been part of a plan to have some control over the management of Fuji Television Network Inc. Nippon Broadcasting was the top shareholder of Fuji TV, another of the five top broadcasters.
Horie said he bought the TV Tokyo shares through the Horiemon Jonetsu Fund, which is the Livedoor president's personal investment management fund, according to sources. Horiemon is Horie's nickname, taken from the popular cartoon robot-cat Doraemon.
The sources said Livedoor probably has no intention of buying stocks of the TV station.
TV Tokyo is owned 33.3 percent by Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc.