South Korean electronics major Samsung Electronics is reportedly on a shopping spree, hunting for companies in the software domain to consolidate its position as a self-sufficient smartphone player.
Samsung had bid for the Israel-based mapping company Waze, which was eventually acquired by Google according to a
report by the Wall Street Journal. It cites a person familiar with the matter as saying that Samsung had approached Waze with an intent to make a large investment and form a partnership, prior to the company putting itself up for sale.
The publication claims to have reviewed an internal document (essentially a mergers and acquisitions presentation) that suggests that Samsung is eyeing a number of Silicon Valley startups including those in segments such as games, mobile search, social media and mapping-related services.
The report informs that Samsung has evaluated startups like Unity Technologies, a San Francisco-based gaming platform company, and Green Throttle Games, a company that makes game controllers and software that allows users to tether mobile devices to televisions, in addition to the prolific Atari, the maker of classics like Pong.
Samsung has also been eying Glympse, a Seattle-based company a location sharing service, Israel-based mobile search engine Everything.me, and video-chat app Rounds, also from Israel.
Samsung would be able to offer more exclusive integrated services competing with rivals like Apple and even Google, differentiating its smartphones and tablets even more from other Android devices in the market. Apple and Google have acquired several software startups including companies that make mobile apps.
Samsung did not comment on the report. The also report notes that Samsung had recently launched a software startup accelerator and had said that it would invest in mobile focused startups interested in Samsung's platform.
It's also possible that Samsung intends to integrate new services in its upcoming Tizen mobile operating system which it's developing with Intel, though the company doesn't have a good record in the software department. It abandoned development of its Bada mobile OS that was launched with its Wave series of phones and its other software products such as the ChatOn mobile messaging service also did not get much traction.