Samsung is looking for acquisitions in Silicon Valley, as part of a drive to improve its weakness in software, The Wall Street Journal reports.

While Samsung has managed to build a dominant position in the smartphone market with its Galaxy range of devices, these are heavily dependent on software from Google to power key services.

This means that Samsung is unable to build deeper relationships with users, who are instead drawn into the wider Android ecosystem controlled by the search giant.

According to the paper, the South Korean company looked at navigation software company Waze, before it was acquired by Google earlier this year. Samsung was said to have approached it to discuss a large investment and partnership.

Companies that have also come into its sights include games platform company Unity Technologies, gaming controller company Green Throttle Games, and Atari, which sold off some assets earlier this year as part of a bankruptcy procedure.

Other potential targets include location services company Glympse (with discussions apparently still ongoing), Everything.me (which counts Telefonica and Mozilla among its investors), and video chat app Rounds.

Last year, Samsung acquired music services player mSpot, which went on to power its Music Hub service.

Next month, the South Korean company is also set to hold a developer conference in San Francisco, intended to help build its own relations with participants – rather than the company being just another member of the Android device maker base.

Samsung already offers a set of tools designed to enable developers to access features specific to its devices, such as the S Pen stylus used in the Galaxy Note line.

It is also heavily involved in the Tizen operating system, although it has yet to officially announce a device powered by the platform.

In order to compete with devices powered by Apple’s iOS, Android and even Windows Phone, Tizen will need to offer access to a compelling set of consumer apps, content and services.