Leading online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. said Thursday it has told Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. it aims to raise its equity stake in the broadcaster to "a little more than" 20.00 percent from the current 19.86 percent and send Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani to the TBS executive board.
The announcement by Rakuten, which had a merger proposal rejected by TBS in October 2005, is likely to ignite a takeover battle, although Rakuten said the latest move is not hostile.
No comments were immediately available from TBS, the third-largest domestic broadcaster.