There’s word going around on the interwebs, that claim Amazon is in “advanced negotiations” with Texas Instruments, in trying to buy its popular smartphone and tablet OMAP chip division. The man who wrote the news story, Assaf Gilad of Calcalist.co.il, has a good track record when it comes to reporting company buyouts. He believes Amazon is trying to get its hands on TI’s mobile chip division to gain complete control over the high-end processors that go in its Kindle Fire tablets.
Of course, neither company has confirmed this news. It could be argued, if such a thing were to happen, it would put Amazon in the same company as Apple and Samsung — both now design their own processors. This could also knife its top competitor Barnes and Noble in the gut, as the company uses Texas Instrument’s OMAP processors in its Nook tablets. In addition, the Kindle maker could really jump off its rumored ambitions of releasing a smartphone, with the purchase of TI’s mobile chip division.
That being said, this still needs to be taken with caution, because it’s only a rumor until one of these companies confirm it to be true. If the rumor is correct, we can expect this to be a multi-billion dollar deal.