Yahoo Japan buys stake in cloud storage firm Basho

A website of Yahoo Japan Corp is seen on a computer screen at a Yahoo! Cafe, a free internet cafe by Yahoo Japan Corp, in Tokyo August 19, 2009.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Japan subsidiary IDC Frontier has invested $6.1 million in Basho Technologies, a U.S. distributed-data and cloud-storage technology firm, and will use Basho's technology in its own cloud-computing platform, Basho said.

IDC Frontier will deploy Cambridge, Mass.-based Basho's riak software in its cloud platform and help Basho roll out its technology throughout Japan.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing and storage capacity that allows users to, for instance, rent servers and software to store data over a network.

Yahoo Japan is a joint venture between Yahoo Inc. and Japan's Softbank Corp., which together own a 35 percent holding in Yahoo Japan. It is considered one of Yahoo Inc.'s most valuable assets.

Yahoo Inc. has considered selling its stake in Yahoo Japan. Earlier this year it sold part of its stake in China's Alibaba Group, an ecommerce company, for $7.1 billion.

IDC Frontier's investment in Basho comes as Yahoo Inc. comes to grips with the appointment of its third chief executive officer this year.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Andrew Hay)