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...
See https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/google-keeps-vast-majority...
Patents and/or other assets may have been exactly what they were referring to.
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.