Rakuten Inc. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. said Thursday they will extend the deadline for concluding their tieup talks to July 31 from the earlier-set June 30.
The nation's largest Internet shopping mall operator and the major TV broadcaster said they also will try to strike a deal on the issue of how to deal with Rakuten's 19 percent stake in TBS during the upcoming talks.
TBS has been demanding that Rakuten release its holdings of the broadcaster's shares as a prerequisite for striking any tieup agreement.
Rakuten is resisting the TBS demand because it would incur a large loss selling the shares, which it bought at a much higher price than it is now, Rakuten officials have said.
Even in the event the two parties fail to strike a compromise by July 31, the deadline would be automatically extended by another month unless either party offers to end the talks, they said.
Rakuten has been seeking an alliance with TBS after its attempts to persuade the broadcaster to fuse its management with Rakuten's under a holding firm failed.
Rakuten angered TBS by quietly hiking its stake in TBS last year, but the two conditionally halted their high-profile battle in November, setting the stage for the tieup talks.