[TCM]

I think you must not of heard that once they sold the company to Lenovo they still kept the Patents. Most likely they will do the same.

See https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority...

[ensignavenger]

"Let's see what google extracts out of HTC"

Patents and/or other assets may have been exactly what they were referring to.

[Nokinside]

Same what Nokia did with smartphones. They sold remaining phone manufacturing and marketing to Microsoft but kept all patents, Nokia Research and even the Nokia brand.

Smartphone market is in the state of business where manufacturing, R&D and brand marketing can be separated and mixed freely. Especially in the Android ecosystem.