Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist has reported today that Amazon.com is in advanced negotiations with chip-maker Texas Instruments to buy the company’s mobile chip arm.

If the report, spotted by Reuters, is correct then the purchase by the online retailer would put it into a position to compete directly with Apple and Samsung. Amazon’s extensive online store already goes up against Apple’s offerings on the retail front and having their own hardware division would allow Amazon to improve their standing against Cupertino’s hardware side to boot.

Neither Amazon nor Texas Instruments have commented on the report yet but Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi has said that she does not believe that Amazon would want to “become that intimately involved with hardware.”

However, Amazon’s Kindle, which uses Texas Instruments chips, and rumours that the company is looking to enter the smartphone market mean that a deal with Texas Instruments cannot be totally ruled out.

Source: Business Insider