"By leveraging CSR's research and development capability, Samsung will strengthen its application processor platform," said Stephen Woo, president of System LSI Business at Samsung Electronics. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the fourth quarter of this year, and it comes as Samsung is already the sole maker of Apple's custom ARM-based CPUs found in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. As competition and lawsuits have grown between Apple and Samsung, various reports have indicated that Apple would like to move away from Samsung and not rely on the company to produce its custom processors. Numerous reports have claimed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is vying for Apple's business, but it's not expected that such a deal could be made before 2014. Apple was said to have signed a major foundry agreement with TSMC last year to build future ARM-based products. However, it is believed that Samsung's fabrication facility in Austin, Tex., remains Apple's sole CPU provider.