Rakuten Inc. officially announced Thursday it will acquire an online brokerage, DLJdirect SFG Securities Inc., marking the latest shopping spree by the nation's largest Internet shopping mall operator.

Rakuten said the acquisition of DLJdirect will help expand the company's operation by adding financial services to its online business portfolio.

It said it will pay 30 billion yen to buy a 96.67 percent stake in the brokerage, including 50 percent from CSFBdirect Asia Holdings Inc., a unit of Credit Suisse First Boston Corp.

The remainder will be from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and other shareholders, it said.

The transaction will be carried out next week, and Rakuten will also assume DLJdirect's 3 billion yen debt. To bankroll the acquisition, the company said it will issue 100,000 shares through a public offering next month.

"The online (stock trading) market has been growing, and it will continue to do so in the future. It is a very attractive market," Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani told the news conference.

Set up in March 1999 as a joint venture between Credit Suisse First Boston and the Sumitomo Mitsui group, DLJdirect has attracted individual investors with heavy trading.

DLJdirect President Atsushi Kunishige said it hopes to lure beginners and casual customers under the wing of Rakuten.

The announcement represents the latest move in Rakuten's quest for an Internet empire.