GoPago's mobile app.

Word has it Amazon is eyeing payments business GoPago, which could give it a leg up in the mobile payments business. According to reports in Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, GoPago CTO Vincenzo di Nicola said that Amazon has acquired the startup.

However, there appears to be some confusion over whether the acquisition happened or is going to happen. According to The Wall Street Journal, Nicola later said his comments were only "partly accurate."If Amazon does acquire GoPago, it will be throwing itself deeper into the competitive payments market -- going head-to-head with the likes of PayPal, Square, and other startups.

In October, the e-commerce giant launched "Login and Pay with Amazon," signaling that it's getting serious about digital payments at a time when other tech titans, such as Google, Apple, and Facebook, have the potential to become the go-to digital wallet for consumers.

"Login and Pay with Amazon" allows users to pay for merchandise on other Web sites using an Amazon account. For its part, GoPago gives brick-and-mortar merchants a way to checkout customers and process credit card payments with simple registers or mobile apps.