Samsung is good at a lot of things. It makes great products that consumers have been loving for the past few years, it certainly isn’t afraid to experiment in order to get things right, and it certainly knows how to make excellent use of its massive marketing budget, which now reaches well into the double-digit billions annually. Software has never been the company’s strong suit though, and its devices are regularly characterized by feature spam. Samsung is working to change that trend, but to really build new software and services that offer more value and better experiences for users, the company knows it will need some outside help.
The Wall Street Journal on Monday evening ran a report based on an internal document it claims to have obtained. The M&A document is said to be part of a presentation prepared earlier this year by Samsung’s Media Solution Center, and it apparently details a number of companies that Samsung may look to acquire in Silicon Valley where it recently opened new offices as well as in the surrounding region and in Israel.
Among the companies said to be on Samsung’s radar at the time the document was created are Unity Technologies, a San Francisco-based gaming platform developer; Glympse, a location-based services provider; and Everything.me, an Israeli mobile search company. Samsung has reportedly also reportedly considered buying all or part of Atari, which recently auctioned off several components of its business after filing for bankruptcy.
According to WSJ’s report, Samsung currently has $1.1 billion allocated for startup and venture capital investments in America.
