Out of nowhere Google is sold off its Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for a deal worth close to 3 billion USD earlier today. The almost 3 billion USD sale doesn’t include the Advanced Technology and Projects group led by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. The Verge was able to confirm this and according to the sources, the team will be integrated with Google’s Android team which is headed by Sundar Pichai. Regina Dugan will reportedly report to Sundar Pichai, but is expected to maintain an individual role.
The Advanced Technology and Projects team which is working on Project Ara has about 100 members and is headed by Regina Dugan. All the team members are likely to shift their office from Sunnyvale to the Mountain View campus. Project Ara is a modular phone concept that allows for re-usage of phone elements and it is expected to be the future. The team also handles other projects like security tattoos and biotech sensors.
Google plans to use its resources to scale Project Ara and consider it as a serious option. As a result of the Motorola-Lenovo deal, Lenovo will have a license to the patents held by the Advanced Technology and Projects team, but the patents will remain with Google.